Grace in the Reagan World
by Lovemesomefrankr
Summary: Grace Reagan is the 16 year old daughter of the Danny and Linda who has one crazy adventure after the next... Pretty much just lots of love for Danny's family - Just an original story from a big fan of the show. I only own Grace. :)
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Reagan! I need to talk to you!" Danny rolled his eyes as he closed the door to his Jeep and watched his cranky, old neighbor, Clinton Mallord, stomp down the street. It had been a long day at the 5-4 and the last thing he wanted to do was listen to his neighbor gripe about whatever it was that had him fired up at the moment.

"What can I do for you Clinton?"

"YOUR kids stole Artemis."

"What?"

"YOUR kids stole my goat statue, Artemis! It's bad enough that they snuck into my yard and painted his… manhood… blue. NOW they have stolen him!"

"Clinton, my kids did now steal your goat. Do you see a goat around here?"

"I'm telling you. I saw your daughter out with her friends Friday night and I know that your sons had a sleepover. It had to be one of them."

"Look. I'll talk to them if it makes you feel better, but I'm telling you, my kids don't have Artemeetes."

"Artemis!"

"Whatever."

Danny rolled his eyes and made his way inside, thinking that he was probably going to kill his kids if they did have something to do with the missing goat statue. "Hey! I'm home!"

"In here," Linda yelled from the kitchen. "How was work?"

"Where are the kids?"

"The boys are out back in their football gear, practicing their tackling techniques, ie pommeling each other to the ground and your daughter hasn't gotten home from swim yet. Why? What's up?"

"Oh I just got chewed out by Crabby Clinton Mallord because he thinks one of the three stole his goat statue."

About that time, Grace walked through the front door.

"I'm hoooome!"

"She is just like you," Linda laughed, looking to Danny.

"Kitchen!"

Grace joined them, dropping her gym bag right inside the kitchen door. "Hey. What's up?"

"Did you and your pals take something from Mr. Mallord's yard?"  
"Well hello to you too, Daddy." She walked to the refrigerator to fix herself a drink.

Danny smirked. "I'm sorry. Hi Gracie. How was your day?" He slung an arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head.

"Fine."

"Good. Did you steal Artermortis?"

"What?"

"Clinton's goat. Did you and your pals take his stupid goat with the blue balls?"  
Grace and Linda both cracked up. "No. We did not steal a blue balled goat." Jack and Sean walked in as Danny stood, looking at their sister, trying to decide if he believed her or not. Grace noticed Jack's eyes go wide with the mention of the goat, so she was 99% sure her brother was involved and weighed the option of selling him out or blackmailing him but decided on keeping his secret. "I did however see a goat, mounted atop the Harrison's lion statue. I wouldn't have known that's what it was but Meghan Trainor's 'Let's Marvin Gaye and Get It On' came on the radio when I passed it and it made me laugh."

"So you didn't steal the goat?"

"I most certainly did not steal the goat, Detective."

"Boys?"

"Did we do what?" Jack asked innocently.

"Dad, nobody stole the goat. Clearly it was just relocated. What once was lost has been found. It's in the Harrison's yard. If you want me to go get it and take it home, I will. I can't promise I won't tell him he's insane, but I will take it home if it means we can stop talking about that crazy, old man and his goat with blue balls."

Danny squinted his eyes, trying to read her. "Lose the attitude."

"Stop talking about goat balls." She turned to Jack before Danny could speak. "Jackers, come on. Help me relocate the humping goat."

"Ella Grace!"

"We'll be back." With that, she and Jack bolted out the front door.

"They stole that goat."

Linda looked at him skeptically. "Danny, she said she didn't do it. I believe her."

"She may not have done it but I guarantee you she knows who did. And if I had to bet, it's the curly headed kid with glasses that she drug along with her. Am I right?" he asked, looking to Sean.

"I'm going to shower."

"Uh huh. See. Told you."

"Well, nevermind now. They are returning it."

Later that night after the boys had gone upstairs for the evening, Grace made her way into the livingroom to find Danny and Linda, cuddling on the couch.

"Ew. Parentals, separate please," she said with a rather disgusted look on her face as she wedged herself in between them.

"What do you want?" Danny asked as he began poking her in the ribs.

"Stop it!" she cackled, trying to grab his hand. "Mom! Help!"

"Danny, stop," Linda directed, coming to the aid of her daughter. The tickle war finally ceased as Grace made herself comfortable in between her parents.

"So, I have a request."

"Uh oh. What's that?"

"I would like permission to go out on my first date tomorrow night."

"What?!" Danny panicked. His heart was not prepared for that. His only girl had just turned sixteen a couple of weeks ago. He knew this was inevitable, but he was at least hoping to delay it for a while.

"You said when I was sixteen I could start dating. Well, I've been sixteen for over three weeks now and I'm ready. A wonderful guy has asked me to the movies and I want to go."

"Who is this boy?"

"Parker Phelps. You know him. He's on the boy's swim team."

"Remind me."

"Parker Phelps. Tall, brown hair, amazing a…" Grace temporarily pointed at her abs and then thought better of it.

"Amazing what?" Linda laughed.

"Nothing. He's just awesome. Can I go?"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Danny said. "Why don't you wait a while? Like until you're twenty-two?"

"Dad…"

"How old is he?"

"Eigh…" Danny's head whipped around. "Seventeen years and four hundred- twenty-two days." He sat in thought for a moment before the lightbulb went off in his head. "He's eighteen?!"

"Daddy, you're three years older than Mom."

"I don't want you dating a senior. No. Find someone your own age and you can have a playdate."

"Mom!"

Linda looked to her panicked daughter. "Let me talk to Daddy. You go get ready for bed. I'll be up in a minute." Grace stomped off as Linda moved closer to Danny.

"No way. She's not going."  
"Danny, you knew this was going to happen sooner or later…"

"I'm good with later," he interrupted.

Linda rolled her eyes. "You promised her she could go on a date when she turned sixteen. Newsflash: She's sixteen. And I know Parker Phelps. His dad is an orthopedic surgeon at St. Vic's. He's a good kid."

"I need to run his license."

"Danny!" Linda frowned at him before he finally relented.

"Ok… but can we make it a double date or a group date? I don't want her going off alone on her first date…"  
"How about if Nicki comes?" Grace yelled from the top of the stairs.

"You're supposed to be getting ready for bed!" Linda yelled back.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, you busy?"  
"Never too busy for the Commissioner. What's up, Dad?"  
"Can you and Linda meet me for dinner tonight?"  
"Yeah, I guess. Want me to bring the kids?"

"No. I just need to talk to the two of you."

"Any chance you'll give me a heads up to what it's about?"  
"See you at Antonio's at 6pm."

"Copy that."

Danny filled Linda in on the dinner plans, and while she too was skeptical of the impromptu dinner party, she was thankful for a night of not cooking. "Kids, come downstairs please!" Linda yelled upstairs as she rushed in and began to get ready. One by one they clumped down the stairs.

"Daddy and I are going into the city to meet Grandpa for dinner."

"Are we going?" Sean asked.

"No. You three are going to stay here, with the doors locked. I brought home a pizza. There are chips and soda in the kitchen. It's not exactly my idea of a healthy meal but it's the best I could do, so find an apple and eat that too. We'll be back by 8:30pm. I want homework done, baths taken, and the three of you ready for bed when we get home. Understood?" Sean nodded. "Jack, Grace?"

"Ready for bed at 8:30pm?" The two older Reagans exchanged a look like their mom must have lost her mind. Neither had been in bed at 8:30pm since they were eight years old.

"You don't have to go to bed at 8:30pm, just be ready for bed when we get home so we can all wind down and not be rushing for an hour and a half before bedtime. Ok?"

"Ok," they both sighed.

"Call if you need anything. Be kind to one another. No fighting. Do not invite any guests over. Stay inside. Am I missing anything?" Linda said, nearly out of breath as she was rushing for the front door.

"Shoes," Jack answered.

"What?"  
"You aren't wearing any shoes."

"Oh."

Linda and Danny arrived at the restaurant shortly before 6pm and walked in together to find Frank who already had a table. He stood and pulled Linda's chair out as Danny searched his face for a tell. If he'd done something bad, Frank would yell at him in private. If Pop was sick, the entire family would be there. Danny had no clue what this meeting was about and didn't waste any time asking.

"Ok Dad. What gives?"

Frank took a deep breath and leaned forward in his chair. "Carter Burke is set to be released from prison tomorrow."

Linda immediately clasped her hand over her mouth. "What?!" Danny snapped. "I thought he was in for at least 25 years."  
"Original sentence was 18-25. He got off for time served and good behavior."

"So what do we need… a restraining order… what?" Linda asked as Danny put an arm around her for comfort.

"Where's Erin? Let's give her a call and get her working on it right now."

"There's more," Frank said, silencing them. "OCCB picked up chatter that he wants to find Grace."

"What?!" Linda exclaimed.

Danny's jaw tightened as he shifted in his seat. "No way in Hel…"

"What did they say exactly, Frank?"

"They know Danny got her. I don't think they want to hurt her. I think he just wants to see her. And he's said if we don't agree, they're going to blow this up in the media. He's going to sit down with a reporter at the end of the week. He's claiming that his parental rights were severed without his consent."

"Well that's a lie," Linda said. "Right?"  
"Doesn't matter," Danny growled. "The murder of a young mother and the attempted murder of her baby pretty much severs your rights. Dad, what's the plan? We've had her since she was six months old. We adopted her fair and square."

"I know… That's why I wanted to have dinner. We need to make a plan and we need to be talking to Grace tonight. She's got to know what's going on so that she can be on high alert."

"This is going to crush her!" Linda sighed. "I knew we should've told her from the start."

"Shocked, yes. Hurt, maybe. But crushed?" Frank began. "No. It won't crush her. No matter where her DNA began, my granddaughter is 100% Reagan. She can handle this."

Danny's phone rang just as they finished with the entrees. "It's Grace," he said, looking at the called ID. "Hello?"

"Hey Dad. Can I go to Hailey's?

"No. I need you to watch your brothers."

"But they're fine. Sean's already eaten and taken his bath and Jack's… fourteen. He doesn't need a babysitter."

"Look, just stay put. Mom told you to keep your brothers, so keep your brothers."

"But they're fine and Millie and Taylor are staying at Hailey's tonight."

"Grace." She could always tell by the tone of Danny's voice when the argument was over.  
"Fine. Can I go when you get home?"  
"No. Just hang tight. We're finishing up here and will be headed home soon." Danny heard nothing on the other end of the line but an extremely frustrated sigh from his daughter who was clearly not happy with the way the phone call was going. "Understand? Don't leave the house. Grace?"

"Yeah, I understand."

"Ok. We'll be home soon."

"What was that about?" Linda asked as Danny ended the call.

"She wants to go to Hailey's. I think we need to deal with this tonight. She's too trusting. We need her to know what's going on… for her own safety."

"You want me to come with?" Frank asked.

"Nah. We can handle it… I think."

"So it's a no go? You're stuck at home tonight?" Jack asked as Grace stomped off to go shower.

"Yep. What did the two of you do?"  
"What do you mean what did we do?"  
"Well Dad and Mom have dinner with Grandpa in the middle of the week like… NEVER. So clearly one of the two of you did something because I haven't done anything. What did you do besides steal that stupid goat?"

"I haven't done anything. Honest. I mean, I'm failing math, but no way they call in Grandpa for that."

Jack and Grace both turned to Sean who was kicked back on the couch watching television. "I haven't done anything, and from where I'm sitting, Grace, it has to be you."  
"Why me?"

"Because. Dad won't let you go anywhere and Mom said the two of you had to be ready for bed by 8:30pm. If somebody's in trouble, it's got to be one of the two of you." Sean grinned as he took a bite of his chocolate chip cookie.

"Whatever!" Grace huffed as she continued upstairs to the shower.

"Pop! You home?" Frank asked, as he walked in through the back door.

"Livingroom, Francis!" Henry was kicked back in his chair with a pair of glasses on his nose and a pair of glasses on his head. "Seven letter word for heart shaped. Starts with a c."

"Cordate." Pop chuckled, once again amazed that Frank would know a word such as cordate.

"So how was dinner?"

"I had to tell Danny Carter Burke is getting out of prison tomorrow and he wants to meet Grace."  
"What?!"  
"And now he and Linda are at home, telling Grace."

"How did that skell get out of prison?"

"He was only sentenced to 18-25 and got time off for good behavior. There's nothing we can do, Pop."

"Danny's not going to let her see him?"  
"I don't think so, but you know as well as I do, if a member of the Burke Crime Family wants something, there's a good chance they'll get it."

Danny and Linda returned home shortly before 9:00pm. Sean was asleep on the couch, Jack was playing a fighter pilot game on his laptop, and Grace was video chatting with Hailey, Millie, and Taylor.  
Danny picked up Sean and took him upstairs to tuck him into bed. "Jack," he said when he returned. "Jack!" Jack hadn't heard a word. He had his headphones on and was completely engrossed in the game until Danny came and pulled them off. "Hey. Hi. Can you take that upstairs? We need to talk to your sister."

"I knew it," Jack said, smiling in Grace's direction, who was still oblivious and was deep in conversation with the girls.

Linda made her way into the kitchen and made some hot tea. Somehow, she thought hot tea would soften the blow. "Ready?" she asked, as they watched Jack disappear at the top of the stair case.

"Not really but we've got to do this," Danny sighed as he led the way.

"Hey Grace, Mom and I need to talk to you."

"Hey guys, I've got to go. The parentals are home and want to talk."  
"Let us say 'hi' first!" Hailey giggled. Grace rolled her eyes as she turned the phone around. "Hi ladies," Danny said with a wave.

"Hi girls," Linda smiled. "Are you having fun?"  
"Yes ma'am."  
"Good. Maybe next time you can all come here."  
"Sounds good." Grace turned the phone back around. "So call us if they let you come out tomorrow."

"Ok. Bye." Grace ended the call and looked over to Danny and Linda. "What's up?"

"Come sit down on the couch. We need to talk." Grace made her way over and took a seat beside Linda as Danny sat down on the coffee table right in front of them.

"So…."  
"We need to talk about something that may be upsetting at first, but just remember that everything is going to be fine. Absolutely nothing is going to change, ok?"

"Is Mom sick?" Grace panicked.

"No."

"I'm fine, Honey," Linda smiled as she placed a hand on Grace's back.

"Are you ok?" Grace asked, looking straight into Danny's eyes.

"Yeah, Gracie. I'm fine."

At this point, she got super confused. "Are you getting divorced?"  
"No. What would make you think that?"  
"Well, we don't just normally sit down for a conversation. So what's up? Is it Grandpa? Pop?"

"Everybody's fine."

"Good… so what is it?"

Linda took a breath and looked at Danny. "Let me try." Grace turned to look at her mother, still confused. "Grace, you know Daddy and I love you very, very much. You are an amazing daughter and a great big sister. You were our first baby. And whether you like it or not, you will be our baby until you are old and grey headed."

"Ok?"  
"But…"  
"Grace," Danny butted in. "Fifteen and a half years ago, Sarge and I were on patrol in Washington Heights when a call came out about shots fired at the Evergreen Apartment Complex. We were the first responders on the scene and found a young woman, Helen Burke who had been gunned down in an apparent mob hit. I assessed the situation and found that the young woman was not likely but was still conscious. She was adamant that I help her baby. That's when I heard a baby crying, followed the sound, and about fifteen feet away, I found a tiny, little girl that had been knocked out of her stroller and was laying underneath a blanket without a scratch on her. Helen was one of my confidential informants. She had been trying to get out of the mob lifestyle and when her husband found out about it, he tried to have her killed. The plan was to take the baby and raise it in the life. I just happened to show up before they could snatch the baby. Carter Burke was arrested shortly afterward and was sentenced to prison for 18-25 years."  
"What happened to the woman?"  
"Died in route to the hospital."

"And the baby?"

"Spent one whole hour in the foster care system before being fostered and adopted by a wonderful family."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Gracie…"

"Oh wait. I'm the baby, right? This is the moment you have sat me down to tell me I'm not really a part of the family? The part where you tell me I'm adopted?" Danny and Linda both held their breath as Grace tried to wrap her mind around it. "Huh. I thought it would feel different."

"Wh-what?" Linda stuttered as she exchanged a confused look with Danny.

"Am I wrong?"

"No, Grace. You aren't wrong," Danny said softly. "Except for the part about you not being part of the family. How did you know?"

"I was going through old family photos about a year ago, working on a Mother's Day present for Mom. I was trying to find one of her pregnant with me. There were plenty of Aunt Erin pregnant with Nicki but none of Mom pregnant with me. Then I got to looking at all the baby pictures and I've never seen any of me as a newborn. It looks like I magically appeared in this family when I was six months old. I just put it all together. I may not be a Reagan, but I can piece together a puzzle pretty well."

"Whoa. Hold it right there, Missy. You are and you have always been a Reagan. And you always will be," Linda stated. "Forever."

"Not technically _always_ …" Grace sighed.

Danny raised his eyebrows as he reached out and took her hand. " **Always**."

"So why are you telling me this now?"

"Well, there's been a development," Danny began. "Carter Burke, your biological… you know what, I don't like that term... We're not referring to him as that or anything else. Carter Burke, the man that shot Helen Burke, is set to be released from prison tomorrow."

"And what? He wants me?" Grace immediately jumped up and began to freak out, pacing around the room before Danny or Linda could explain anything. "Please don't let him take me. I don't want to go with him. I don't even know him. This is the only family I want. Please, Dad. Let me go hide at Grandpa's…. anything. I mean I know I drive you nuts but you're the only father I want."

Danny jumped up and wrapped Grace in his arms. For a moment, it wasn't like she was sixteen any more. He flashed back to when she was six years old and one of the girls at school had been mean to her. She came home and ran straight into his arms, absolutely devastated. "Shhh…." Danny soothed as she held on to him for dear life. "Nobody is taking you anywhere… not now, not ever."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He kissed the top of her head. "This was never about them taking you away from us. He does, however, want to see you. I don't think that's a good idea."

"Neither do I," Grace agreed as he led her back over to the couch and they took a seat.

"But here's the thing. Carter Burke is second in line in the Burke Crime Family. They have more foot soldiers than Santa has elves which is why you have to be careful. No more going out by yourself or with people you don't absolutely know. We're not going to live in fear, but Mom and I need to know where you are at all times. Ok?"

"Ok. No more going off the grid. Do you think they'll come after me? I mean, do they want me dead too?"

"No. No. No," Linda sputtered. That was a thought she didn't even want entertained in any of their minds. "I think he's just interested in the lovely young woman that he didn't get to watch grow up."

"Look, Gracie, I know it's a lot to take in. We never wanted to tell you like this, but his parole sort of came out of the blue. Do you have any questions? Mom and I will tell you as much as we can."

"Not really. I don't really want to know anything about them. No point in missing someone you can never know, right?"

"I guess you're right," Linda smiled as she hugged her daughter.

"What is it?" Danny asked as he peered at her suspiciously. "What is going through that mind of yours?"

"I just wonder why he didn't want me alive? I mean, what could I have possibly done that he wanted to kill both of us?"

"You didn't do a thing," Linda answered. "You know mob families. Rational thoughts aren't really high on their to-do list."

"Mom's right. It didn't have anything to do with you. From what we could tell, Helen was trying to get out of the life. She wanted more for you and he wasn't about to let that happen. He figured if he couldn't have you, she couldn't either."

Grace let that roll around in her head for a moment before she got up. "Look, guys, I'm tired and I don't really want to talk about this anymore. Can we table this discussion for a while?"

"Are you ok?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, Mama. I'm fine. I just… I need to go digest this for a while."

"I can respect that. Come find me and Daddy when you want to talk, ok?"

"Ok."


	3. Chapter 3

Grace made her way up to her bedroom to try and sort things out on her own. Thoughts were running through her head a mile a minute. On one hand, she felt like she'd been lied to her entire life. On the other hand, she wanted to rewind the day and completely skip over finding out that she was adopted. She loved the Reagans with her whole heart and even though she knew nothing would ever change, she just felt different. All of the information was so overwhelming, Grace didn't even know where to begin. She pulled out her laptop and search "Carter Burke, Burke Crime Family, Brooklyn, NY". Two hours later, she was knee deep in information on her infamous heritage. It could pretty well be summed up by saying that she came from everything the NYPD was against. Danny and Linda came upstairs to check on all the kids around 11pm. They quickly made Jack turn off the game and go to bed. Sean was still sound asleep. He had kicked off all his blankets, so Danny straightened them up before he and Linda made their way down the hall to Grace's room.

"Still up?" Danny whispered as he stuck his head into her room.

"Just doing some reading," she answered as she quickly shut her laptop. "Nothing important."

"Good, because it's late and you need to get to sleep." He walked over and took the laptop from her and placed it on her desk.

"Ok," Grace sighed as she hugged Linda. "Night Mom."

"Goodnight, sweet girl. Love you."

Danny pulled Grace's quilt up over her shoulders as she snuggled down into the middle of her bed. "You sure you're ok?"  
"As long as you've got the receipt for me, I'm fine." Danny looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "Too soon?"  
"Inappropriate, Ella Grace," he chuckled. "Completely inappropriate. Be glad your mama didn't hear that."

"Love you, Dad."

"Love you more. Goodnight."

Grace tossed and turned for an hour. She couldn't turn off the information running through her mind. Shortly after midnight, she couldn't take lying in the dark anymore. She got up, changed from pajamas to sweats, and crept down the hall to Jack's room.

"Jack," she whispered, shaking his shoulder. "Jack. Jackers."

"What do you want, Sassy?" he yawned, without even opening his eyes.  
"I can't sleep."

"Watch me. I'll show you how."

"No, Jackers. Wake up. I need to burn off some energy. Come hold the punching bag steady for me."

"It's…" Jack rubbed his eyes and reached for his glasses, "12:03am. Could we possibly do this later?"  
"No. Now. Please?"

"UGH!" There wasn't anything Jack wouldn't do for his sister, but he wasn't above showing his displeasure for having to get out of bed in the middle of the night. He staggered out to the garage with her and held the 100-pound bag steady while Grace slid on the boxing gloves and went to town beating the stuffing out of the bag. "Want to tell me why you drug me out here in the middle of the night? Has this got something to do with your conversation with Mom and Dad? What'd you do?"

"I didn't do anything. But tonight, I found out I'm adopted," Grace answered, somewhat out of breath as she continued to wail on the punching bag.

"What?"  
"Yeah. Found out I'm not really a Reagan. Don't worry. You and Sean still are. I remember when you were born. I, however, never really was one." Grace landed about eight punches in a row.

"Wait. Stop!" Jack moved the bag as best he could, forcing her to take a break. "What are you talking about?"

"Apparently I was one of Dad's cases. I really belong to the Burke Crime Family. I just spent the past two hours researching them. They're real lovely people. They pulled off one of the largest robberies in New York history and have managed to get away with killing more people than live in Staten Island. Their favorite hobby is extortion. Yeah. They're just great."

"How are you… how did you… what?"

"Apparently my real dad shot my real mom and tried to kill me too but was unsuccessful. Lucky for me, he gets out of prison tomorrow and he wants to see me. Not really sure if he wants to finish the job or recruit me to join the family business."

"Sassy, that's crazy."

"I know, thus why I need to hit something. Will you please just hold the bag for me?" Jack nodded as she resumed feverishly punching the heavy bag.

About ten minutes later, she was dripping with sweat. Jack could tell she was tiring. "Sas, how about we turn in, huh?"

"Five more minutes," Grace huffed as she continued her assault. "You… know… what's… crazy… Jackers?"

"What?"  
She stopped punching as Jack stepped to the side and threw her a towel. "It sort of makes sense. I make all the wrong choices because I literally come from the worst people in New York."

"Maybe not the worst…"

"Jackers! My own father tried to off me. How much worse could it get?"

"Number one," Danny said, in a raised voice as he made his presence known in the garage, " **your** father did not do anything but find you and bring you home and he's now currently standing in the garage after midnight when he distinctly remembers sending you and your brother to bed over two hours ago. Carter Burke, on the other hand, tried to kill you and was sent to prison where he belongs. Number two, this situation could get a lot worse if your mama has to come out here and remove the two of you from this garage. Let's take it in, guys. Time for bed."  
"Five more minutes?" Grace asked, getting her second wind.

"Nope. Inside. Now." Jack headed back into the house as Danny helped Grace take off her boxing gloves and threw them in the corner. He turned her around and looked straight into her eyes. "So I guess your definition of 'fine' and my definition of 'fine' are two very different things."

"I just needed to blow off some steam."

"I get it. I do. Gracie…" he said, lifting her chin, "you make _some_ bad choices, not all of them are bad. And you don't come from the worst people in New York. You are a Reagan. 110%. And I'm going to keep reminding you of that until I get it through that thick Reagan head of yours. The Burkes may have conceived and given birth to you, but us Reagans, **we** are your family."

"Whatever you say," Grace sighed as they walked into the house. "I've got to shower. See you in the morning."

"Wait," Danny said, grabbing her arm. "Use mine and Mom's that way you don't wake up Sean."

"What about Mom?"  
"Who do you think sent me to the garage?"


	4. Chapter 4

Linda and Sean spent the following day at a birthday party for one of his buddies. They had pizza and played laser tag. Grace and Jack were left at home to entertain themselves while Danny went in to wrap up a case. He also wanted to get as much intel on Carter as he possibly could. Grace called Nicki and convinced her to go out for the afternoon. After a quick call to Parker to actually take her into the city, Grace got dressed.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked. "I thought you were supposed to stay close to home."

"If Mom or Dad ask, I'm just hanging out with Nicki. No big deal."

"How are you getting to Manhattan? That's a two hour ride on the subway."

"Parker."

"Dad's not going to like that."

"It will be fine. I'll be home before he is."

"Where are you going?"

"We're going to meet the prison bus. I've got to see what Carter Burke looks like."

"Can't you just look him up online? Or just watch the 6:00pm news?"

"No. I want to see his face."

"Can I come with you? I mean, Dad's going to kill us, but if you're going, I want to be there for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Sas."  
"Jackers, that's the sweetest thing ever, and I really appreciate it."

"But…"

"But I don't want you getting in trouble for me and there's always a chance I won't make it back before Dad. You hold down the fort here, cover for me if you can, and I'll fill you in when I get home."

"Ok. Be careful."

With that, Grace set out on her adventure. Parker Phelps, the perfect gentleman, arrived and chauffeured her into Manhattan, without even a question. They picked up Nicki at the apartment and hurried off to meet the prison bus. Little did they know, as they stood on the sidewalk, waiting for a glimpse of the newly released inmates, Danny and Baez were also headed in that direction. While driving to see Grace's biological father, Danny thought he'd check in. When Grace didn't pick up her cellphone, he called Jack.

"Hey Wild Man. What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"What about Grace? Her phone's not on."

"Ummm…."

"Jack… where's your sister?"  
"She's hanging out with Nicki."

"Did Nicki come over today?"  
"Not exactly. She's in the city with Nicki."  
"How'd she get to the city?"

"Caught a ride with a friend."

"What friend?" Danny's blood pressure was rising as Jack tried to figure out exactly what to say and what not to say.

"Parker, I think."

"What are they doing in the city?"  
"I'm not really sure… Probably just girl stuff."

"JACK! I'm going to ask you one more time. Where is your sister?"

"They went down to see the guys come off the prison bus," Jack sighed.

"Are you kidding me? Grace is in so much trouble! And don't you make plans anytime soon."  
"Why me?"  
"You're grounded for a week for attempting to cover for her." Danny disconnected the call as he stepped on the gas. Baez gave him a puzzled look.

"My daughter decided to sneak into the city to meet the prison bus. If the Burkes don't get her first I may kill her myself!"

Meanwhile, the three amigos made their way to the huge group of well wishers that had formed at the bus stop. "And why exactly are we here?" Nicki asked as she, Grace, and Parker walked up to the back of the crowd.

"Prisoners were released today. One of them is from a pretty famous New York mob family. I need to see him for a report I'm doing for school… to see how being in prison affects a person. This was him before he went to prison eighteen years ago," she said as she held up a newspaper clipping she had printed off of the computer. "I'm interested to see how he looks now," Grace answered. Granted it wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't really a lie either.

Danny and Baez pulled up on the street opposite the kids and spotted them right off. "You have GOT to be kidding me," he fumed.

"What is it, Reagan?"

"There they are. Grace and Nicki are here… and… Parker!"

"Hey, calm down. Think through how you want to handle this before you just go out there and go crazy on her."

About that time, the bus pulled up and Danny lost sight of them. "I probably shouldn't go over because he's going to recognize me and that might tip him off that those are my kids and that's Grace. Can you go over and get them? Like now."

"Sure. Stay put. And calm down!"

Baez leisurely made her way across the street as the bus began to unload to the cheers of all the waiting family members. "You three, come with me," she said with a tap to the backs of Nicki and Grace.

"Uh oh. Hey Detective Baez."

"Uh oh is right, Grace. What are you doing here?"

"Just watching. Don't tell my dad you saw us, please?"  
"I don't have to. He's waiting across the street. And he is fuming so you better not keep him waiting long."

"Can we at least see…"

"Nope. Now. Let's go."

Grace and Baez led the way as Nicki and Parker tagged behind.

"Hi Daddy…"

"Car. NOW." He turned to Parker. "I will take them from here. Don't expect to see Grace anytime soon."

Parker gave Grace a sympathetic look as he went back to his own car and she and Nicki climbed in the back of the unmarked police vehicle Danny was driving. Danny didn't say a word as they drove to Erin's apartment. "Nick, let's go."

"I can walk up by myself, Uncle Danny. I'm sixteen years old."

"I need to make sure you are in safely. Let's go." She rolled her eyes as he escorted her all the way up and into her apartment. "You're grounded for two weeks."  
"What?"  
"I know you didn't come up with the idea, but going to watch the prison bus unload is a stupid idea, especially for two sixteen year olds. Two weeks. I'm sure your mom will agree."

Meanwhile, Baez was attempting to lend an understanding ear to Grace. "Any chance you could talk to him?"

"I don't know, Grace. He's pretty fired up right now."

Grace chuckled. "That's one way of putting it."

"You know it's just because he was worried about you. He was afraid that the Burkes may grab you and…"

"I know."

When Danny returned to the car, the deafening silence returned. Baez kept giving Grace sympathetic looks as she leaned up against the window, staring into the distance. Danny huffed and puffed as he glared at the street in front of them. It didn't take long to get back to the 5-4. "So, I'll finish up here…" Baez said as they all got out of the car.

"Thanks."  
"Don't blow up on her, Reagan."

"See you Monday."

Once the Reagans were safely in their own car, the deafening silence between them came to a screeching halt. "Grace, I need to know one thing. What possibly made you think that going down to that bus stop today was a good idea?"

"I just needed to see him. I wasn't going to say anything. I just wanted to see what he looked like."

"Do you know how dangerous that was?"

"But I had Parker and Nicki with me. Nothing was going to happen."

"And your phone?"

"I left it at home."

"So I couldn't track you? Nice. If the Burkes were to grab you, how would we know where to look?"

"Well I wasn't really planning on any of that. Dad, don't you think you are overreacting just a tad?"

"No, Grace. I'm trying to keep you safe!"

"I know. I know. I'm sorry."

They didn't say any more until they got to the house. As soon as they walked inside, Danny pointed upstairs. "Get up to your room and do not come out. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Grace sighed as she made her way upstairs.

"Why aren't you in your room?" Danny barked as he walked into the kitchen and found Jack sitting at the table, writing a paper.

"He's working on homework. What's the matter with you?" Linda asked, clearly unaware of the afternoon's events.

"Upstairs in and your room while I talk to Mom. Do not let me find you with Grace when I come up there." Jack gathered his stuff and took off while Danny loosened his tie and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What in the world is going on?"  
"Grace decided to take a little trip into the city today with Nicki and Parker.

"One trip into the city isn't what has you so worked up. What else happened?"

"They went to see the prisoners get off the bus."

"Why?"

"She said she just needed to see what he looked like. Linda, when Jack told me she was there, I thought I was going to lose her. What if I didn't make it in time? What if the Burkes had taken her?"

"I know, Danny. I know." Linda wrapped her arms around him.

Danny did go up to collect the kids for dinner, but Grace wasn't much up for eating. Normally Danny would've made her come down anyway, but he was still angry with her so he just left her in her room. Jack, on the other hand, wasn't about to miss a meal, so he quickly made his way to the table.

"Where Gracie?" Sean asked as they all sat down to eat.

"She's upstairs."

"Want me to go get her?"  
"No," Danny answered. "Just eat your chicken."  
"But it's her turn to say grace."

"She's in trouble, genius," Jack whispered.

"Ohhhhh."

It was a pretty quiet dinner after that. Linda kept glancing at Danny, who was going at his chicken like it was trying to get away. Jack ate quietly and Sean was just oblivious to the tension in the room. Linda made Grace a plate and wrapped it up as Jack and Sean cleared the table.

"You know you have to talk to her eventually," Linda said as she walked into the livingroom to find Danny blankly staring at the television.

"I know, I'm just not sure what there is left to say… other than she's grounded until she's fifty."

"Try to think of something else." Linda grabbed the plate from the kitchen and handed it to him. "Here. Take her some dinner."

"Yes ma'am," he grinned as he hung his head and marched upstairs.

Grace was kicked back on her bed, mindlessly flipping through a magazine when Danny knocked softly and walked in.

"Hi."

"Hey." She tossed the magazine to the side and sat up, knowing he would want her full attention.

Danny made his way in and put the plate on her desk. "Mom sent up some dinner."  
"Thanks."

He pulled her desk chair over to the side of the bed and took a seat.

"So, we need to talk about what went down today."

"Do we have to?"

"You cannot take risks like you took today, especially in spite of recent developments."

"I know."

"And you cannot just leave your phone at home so we won't know where you are. That's stupid about twelve different ways."

"I know."

"You are not allowed out of this house, not even into the yard, without your phone ever again. Understand?" Grace nodded as he took her phone off her desk and put it in his pocket and started out of the room.

"Aren't you going to give me my phone if I'm not allowed out without it?"

"No. Because you are grounded for a month and since you know you can't leave the house without this thing... you can have it back in a month."


	5. Chapter 5

The following morning Grace was up before her brothers. She wandered down the hall to find Linda and Danny awake, but still in bed.

"Hey Missy, what are you up to?" Linda asked.

"Couldn't sleep. You still mad at me?"  
"Come sit," Danny said as he and Linda both sat up and rested their backs against the headboard. He patted them empty space between them as Grace slowly made her way into the room and crawled into the bed.

"Promise never to take a risk like that again?" Linda asked, with her eyebrows raised.

"Yes ma'am."

"Then we're good."

"Dad?"  
Danny narrowed his eyes and grabbed both sides of her face. "Sometimes I want to strangle you, especially when you take stupid risks."

"I know."

"But, you're my kid and you will always be my favorite daughter."

"Good. Will you tell me a story?"

Danny smiled as he glanced at Linda. "Ok Gracie, what do you want? Three Little Pigs? Jack and the Beanstalk?"

"No, Daaad. Tell me the story of how you guys got me."

"Well," Linda began. "It was a cold, cold December night. I was working the night shift when I got a call that Daddy was on his way to the hospital. I immediately panicked like I always do and pretty much held my breath until he got there, and then he walked through the door. All I saw in his arms was a bundle of pink blankets… and you. The most perfect sixteen-pound baby girl with big blue eyes and whispy brown hair. I tried to take you, and you cried. The doctor tried to take you, and you cried. As long as your Daddy had you though, you were fine. He stayed in the room and held you while you were examined. You were a little bit small, but other than that, perfectly healthy. We called in the Department of Child Services to come place you. It only took about ten minutes after the social worker left with you screaming that we talked and decided it would be best if you stayed with us for a while. After all, it was Christmas time and wasn't exactly easy to find a foster family."

"And so I waited on Mom to get off work and I drove her down to Social Services," Danny continued. "We told Mrs. Judy that we would be willing to take the baby until a good family could be found. I had already placed a call to Erin to get paperwork started regarding a restraining order against the rest of the Burke family."

"Daddy had the next two days off which was good because he had already declared that he would make the decision of whether or not the foster family they picked out was good enough for you. When I got in from work the next evening, I found the two of you, in front of the television. You had on a backwards Jets hat and a tiny, NYPD shirt and that's when I knew, you weren't going anywhere. The very next day we went to the courthouse to start the paperwork."

"But we didn't do it alone. Aunt Erin had to expedite all of the paperwork. She and Uncle Jack did all of the legal stuff for us. Pop and Grandpa gave us the money they were going to give to the Hero's Fund for the year. And Uncle Jamie went out and bought you your first crib. And that was that. You officially became Ella Grace Reagan."

"You see, Gracie, you may not have been born from my tummy, but you've been in our hearts since the first day we laid eyes on you."

"Cool. So what do we do now?"

"We talk to Grandpa, because I have absolutely no idea… other than you aren't to leave this house for the next thirty days. I'm sure he's already ten steps ahead of us, but we'll talk about it after Sunday dinner."

The kids were dragging their feet the following morning, so Danny's family was the last to arrive at church. They all marched in and filled their pew with the rest of the Reagans. Grace crawled over her brothers and pushed them back toward their parents enough so she could sit next to Jamie.

"Hey," he chuckled as Sean frowned in displeasure of getting kicked out of his seat. "You guys are late. Grandpa's not going to be happy…"

"Not my fault. And I'm already in the doghouse with Dad. I don't need Grandpa mad at me too."

"What have you done?"

"Took a little trip into the city Friday to see the inmate bus roll in."

"WHAT?" Jamie laughed as Frank, Henry, and Danny all frowned in their direction. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Smooth move, Uncle Jamie."

"Why would you do that?"

"Wanted to see Carter Burke."

Jamie's ears perked. He wasn't quite sure how much Grace knew so he didn't want to give anything away. "Why would you want to see Carter Burke?"

"Wanted to see what he looked like." Grace sat quietly for a minute. "I know."

"Know what?"

She looked him right in the eyes. "I know."

"Oh."

"Thanks for buying me my first crib."

"You got it, Grace."

After Mass was over, the Reagans all walked to the parking lot together. "Dad, can I ride with Uncle Jamie?"

"Do you have your phone?" Danny asked.

"No, you do."

"Then nope."

"But it's Uncle Jamie… and we're just going to Grandpa's."

"And you're grounded. I told you. No phone, no go." Grace rolled her eyes and made her way to the Jeep with Linda.

Frank waited until Nicki, Jack, and Sean had relocated to the living room after dinner before bringing up the issue of Carter Burke. "Erin where are we on a restraining order?"  
"Already been issued. He knows he can't come within 500 feet of Grace."

"And where did we land on Grace not coming within 500 feet of him?" Henry asked as he glared at his great-granddaughter.

"Already taken care of, Gramps," Danny answered.

Linda walked back in from getting the kids settled in the other room and took the seat to the right of Grace, left open by Nicki. "What did I miss?"

"Aunt Erin's office has issued a restraining order and Pop's mad at me for going into town..." They all chuckled, wryly. "That's about it."  
"And now we're working a plan," Danny continued. "Dad, any chatter picked up from OCCB regarding my girl?"

Frank looked to Grace, but remained tight lipped. Clearly he had something on his mind, but was trying to decide whether or not he should say anything. "What?" Grace finally asked. "Grandpa, if it has to do with me, I probably need to know."

"You're right, Granddaughter. You need to know as do the rest of us." He looked around the table at a very concerned group of Reagans. "OCCB has picked up some chatter regarding Grace. Apparently her name popped yesterday as soon as Carter was released. He said his first order of business was to track her down." A shiver went down Grace's spine. As much as she tried to hide it, it was indeed noticed by all. "After we hit him with the restraining order, he placed a call to two men, Joey Longfellow and Tony Weaver, who are both made men, in the Burke family and told them to find Grace and bring her in."

"Bring me where?" Grace panicked.

"That's the million-dollar question. The Burkes have properties in all five Burroughs."

"I think it goes without saying, Grace, you are on lockdown."

"I'm already on lockdown, Grandpa, for the next thirty days."

"No, Ella Grace. I mean real lockdown, as in, you are going to move in with me and Pop. I want you under this roof until we figure out what to do about the Burkes."

"But what about Mom and Dad? And Sean and Jack?"

"They are moving in too."

"Whoa…" Danny protested.

"Not up for debate, Daniel. Until there is no longer a threat to my granddaughter or her family, you will be staying here with me and Pop. End of discussion."

It didn't do Danny any good to protest. Frank and Henry had already made up their minds, so after dinner, Danny and Linda took the kids home to pack their things.

"Why are we staying with Grandpa for a week?" Sean asked.

"Um…. We're having some wiring done at the house and can't stay here," Danny lied. "Go pack up the toys that you just can't live without for a week. Mom and I will be in shortly to help pack clothes."

"Dad, doesn't this seem a little excessive?" Grace asked as she dropped her purse on the kitchen table and sat down.

"When it comes to your safety? No." Linda answered. "Go upstairs and pack up. Make sure you get all your books and your computer. I have a feeling you may end up doing school at Grandpa's house."

"Dad?"

"You heard your mother. Go." Grace frowned as she got up and stomped up the stairs, muttering under her breath how ridiculous it all was.

"Danny, I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

"I know, Babe. I don't either, and I'll speak to her later about having a better, more respectful attitude while we are at Dad's."

"I'm not talking about Grace's attitude, which, I agree, does need to change. I don't like Frank is so concerned he's making us come to his house. He wouldn't insist on all of us being there unless there was a real threat."

"I know." Danny enveloped Linda in a hug.

"Grandpa, your prisoners are here!" Grace yelled as the Reagans walked through the kitchen door.

"Might want to start that discussion sooner, rather than later," Linda frowned at Danny.

"Hey!" Danny scolded as he thumped Grace on the shoulder.

"What?"  
"Drop the attitude."

"I don't have an attitude. I'm just annoyed that we have to move in with the Irish Armada."

Danny grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the staircase as Henry and Frank joined them. "Go upstairs and put your stuff away and do not come back down here unless you have a brand new attitude. Got it?"

"See you in the morning," Grace grumbled.

Danny and Linda chuckled at the lack of space that night as they climbed into Danny's old bed. "This bed is much smaller than I remember."

"I know. I feel like we're going to be on top of each other all night."

"Why Linda Reagan, I'm shocked. Are you planning on taking advantage of me in my old room?"

"Stop it," she blushed as she rolled her eyes and swatted him. "What are we going to do about Grace?"

"I don't know. If she were six, I'd spank her but I hardly think that will work now. I could pull out that trusty bar of soap that I know my Dad still has stashed in his bathroom and wash her mouth out."

"I don't mean about her mouth and blatant disrespect. I mean about the Burkes. I'm afraid she's not taking this seriously."

"Oh, I think she is. I think she's just scared so she's trying to make it appear like it's not bothering her, thus the attitude."

Grace was up early and ready for school the following morning at least twenty minutes before her brothers were even out of bed. She crept downstairs and into the kitchen, only to be startled to find Frank and Henry already having coffee. "Morning Pop. Morning Grandpa."

"Hello Gracie!" Henry said with open arms as she walked over and gave him a hug. "Why are you already up and dressed?"  
"I need to get to school early. I have some stuff to take care of. Can I ride in with you and Jim in the Commisionerobile, Grandpa?"

"Sure. I think we can swing by and drop you off. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Just coffee."

"You shouldn't be drinking coffee," Pop scolded. "Have some milk."

"Yeah, I don't really like milk, Pop. Do you have hot chocolate?"

"I think we've got a mix in here somewhere," Frank said as he dug through the cupboard and pulled out a package.

"Much better," Henry smiled.

"Perfect!" Grace said as she dumped it in her thermos and filled it up with coffee.

Frank chuckled as he looked at a horrified Henry. "Not exactly what I was thinking of, Princess." Grace shrugged as Danny joined the party. "Danny, tell your daughter she shouldn't be drinking hot chocolate and coffee."

"Oooo. We have hot chocolate?"

"Like father, like daughter," Frank laughed as he tossed Danny a pack of hot chocolate.

"Hey Gracie, do you have swim this afternoon?"

"We have a meet at 4:00pm."

"Where?"

"St. Brendan's."

"Are you riding a bus?"

"What?"

"How are you getting there?"

"Oh. Yeah. We're riding a bus. Coach Mac is driving."

"And you are with Coach Mac all afternoon?"

"Dad, chill. It's a swim meet like every other swim meet I've gone to since I was six."

"Ok. Just keep your eyes open."

"I kinda have to or I'll hit the wall."

"I meant…"

"Dad, I know. Quit freaking out. I'm going to be fine. Ready, Grandpa?"

"I am. Got your stuff?" Grace held up her backpack and gymbag as if to signify that she did. "All right. Let's go."

"Bye Pop." Grace walked over and gave him a hug. Danny stood with open arms, waiting on his turn. "Bye Dad."

"Be good… and careful!" he shouted as she walked out to the car.

"Got it. Stop worrying!"

"And good luck against St. Brendan's!"

"Now Grandpa, when we get near the school, I want you to tell Jim to pull over so I can walk the rest of the way and not look like I'm getting dropped off by the POTUS."

"We will deliver you to the front door."

"But…"

"And if I don't see you walk directly into the building, I will get out and escort you in myself. And you know, I don't walk anywhere without at least one member of my detail." Grace huffed as she furrowed her brow. "Have a nice day, sunshine."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hey Mrs. Appleby! How's my favorite secretary?" Danny asked as he waltzed into the office later that morning.

"I'm good, Detective Reagan. How are you?"

"Great!"

"And the Commissioner?"

"He's fine."

"Good. How can I help you this morning? Need one of the kids?"

"No, just needed to alert you of something. I know you guys don't let anyone see the kids that isn't on their approved list…"

"Correct."

"Well, I'm working a case and am afraid that we may have some people try to get to my kids."

"Oh my."

"Yeah… So if anyone with the last name Burke comes to see one of mine, especially Grace, will you please call me immediately?"

"Will do, Detective Reagan."

"Danny!" Mr. McCarthy, the school principal exclaimed as he rounded the corner. "What brings you to St. Mary's?"

"Just filling in Mrs. Appleby on visitors for my girl. Can you please keep an eye out for my Gracie?"  
"Will do, Danny. You coming to watch her in the swim meet this afternoon?"  
"I'm going to try my best to be there."

"You know if she wins tonight, she's going to regionals?"  
"Really? I had no idea we were that far along in the season. Grace never tells me anything."  
"Well, she's sixteen. It comes with the territory. Give her ten or twelve years. She'll start to like you again."

"That's certainly comforting," Danny laughed. "I've got to get to work. Thank you, Mrs. Appleby. See you this afternoon, Dave."  
"Take it easy, Danny!"

Meanwhile, at 1PP Garrett was giving Frank all the information on the Burke Crime Family that he shouldn't be giving him. "We can't do anything until they make a move."

"Well, we could put a cop on them. They are bound to screw up sooner or later," Garrett suggested.  
"I can't use NYPD resources just because I'm worried about my granddaughter."

"Why not? You have 35,000 men that would love a chance to take down a crime family and please the PC." Frank frowned at Garrett and then returned to the pile of work Baker had placed on his desk.

Danny wasn't fairing any better. He and Baez couldn't find a thing to bring the Burkes in on and was having trouble tracking their whereabouts.

"I guess I could call a meeting with them, but then they'd know we have ears on them." Danny threw his pen down and rubbed his forehead. "What am I going to do, Baez?"

"Prepare Grace as best you can and be ready for them when they make a move."

Completely oblivious to the danger that may be lurking, Grace's friends were more concerned about the evening's social events than anything else. "So Gracer, what do you have planned after this?" Hailey asked as the swim team got off the bus at St. Brendan's Prep.

"Nothing. I'm under house arrest this week at my grandfather's house."

"What? It's my birthday! Can't you at least go out for ice cream?"

"Highly doubt it. If my Mom picks me up there's more of a possibility than if my Dad is here."

"Whaaat? You let me ask Detective Reagan. I'm sure he'll say yes."

The boys were up first. Parker Phelps dominated his race, blowing away the competition by more than two seconds. It wasn't even close. He was on his way to regionals. Danny and Linda watched as he waked over to their daughter and whispered to her. They weren't sure if it was words of encouragement, strategy, or just a dirty joke. The way Grace threw her head back and laughed, it was pointing more towards the latter. Danny didn't like it but Linda thought it was cute. Whatever it was, it worked. Grace outswam everyone in her field by more than a second and of course, Parker was the first one to greet her when she got out of the pool.

Hailey, Millie, Taylor, and Grace all had to swim the 4x100 relay not long after Grace's race. Once again, the "Dream Team" as they had dubbed themselves, won by two body lengths. The boys also qualified for Regionals in their relay. It was a good night for St. Mary's Swim Team. All of the kids were on a high when they changed into their warm up suits and headed to meet their parents.

"Detective Reagan!" Hailey shouted as she, Millie, Taylor, and Grace all locked arms and headed his way.

"Hey girls."

"You did great," Linda smiled as she gave them all a hug. "I think that was your best race yet!"

"I think it was our best. You know what else?" Hailey asked as Danny began to put on his suit coat.

"What's that, Hales?"  
"Today's my birthday!"

"Really?" Danny asked. "Well, happy birthday. If I'd known that, I would've brought that box of rocks I was going to give you."

"That's ok," Hailey smiled. "Instead, you can just agree to let Gracie here go out with us to celebrate."

"Sorry, Hailey. Gracie has to go home tonight."

"But it's my birthday…" Hailey put on the saddest face she could muster and elbowed Taylor and Millie to do the same.

"Too bad. Grace is grounded. She's going home with me."

"Whaaat? Grounded on my birthday? Come on Detective Reagan… pleeeeease?"

"Aw. Look, Lin. They're so cute." Grace knew Danny was toying with the girls, but poor Hailey had no idea. She was trying her best to look deserving of a party fit for a princess. "I mean, it's Hailey's birthday. We should just completely forget about Grace's punishment and let them all go out with the boy's swim team. I should probably talk to all of their parents to ensure nobody even gets a curfew tonight because after all… it's Hailey's birthday."

"Right!" Hailey agreed.

"Wrong!" Danny snapped sarcastically. "Grace let's go. Girls, get your ice cream and get your butts home… and no hanging out with the boys." Deflated, the girls frowned as they all hugged each other.

"Happy Birthday, Hales."  
"Bye Gracer."

Danny looked at a dejected Grace through the rearview mirror. She knew she didn't need to be out without her parents so close to Carter's release, but that wasn't about to stop her from being angry about it. "So Gracie, where are regionals?"

"Dad, can I ask you a question without you getting mad?"

"Depends on the question." He knew this was not going to end well, but she had a right to be indignant, so he was about to go along for the ride.

"Choose your words carefully, Ella Grace," Linda warned.

Grace weighed the options in her head for a moment. "Ah screw it," she finally said. She was already grounded anyway. "So here's my question."

"Here we go," Danny muttered, glancing at Linda.

"Some guy gets out of jail, you can't figure out how to get him back into jail, so now I'm in jail? What exactly is fair about that?"

Danny took a deep breath. "You aren't in jail, Grace, you're grounded. And you aren't grounded because some guy got out of prison, you're grounded for going into the city by yourself to watch a bunch of recently released prisoners get off a bus."

"You're grounded for putting yourself in danger," Linda continued.

Grace didn't say anything else. She just sat in the backseat, sullen and staring out the window.


	7. Chapter 7

Danny's family moved home the following week after the threat of the Burke family going public proved to be a bluff. Frank agreed to let them leave, but only after a sit down with Grace to reiterate the importance of being on high alert. However, the following week at school would hold an unfortunate series of events for all of the Reagan kids and it had absolutely nothing to do with the Burke Crime Family. Jack had been relentlessly bullied by some kid in his class for weeks. He hadn't said anything to anybody, thinking it would eventually pass. Unfortunately, Tanner Brown, the class bully, finally pushed Jack too far and without warning, Jack took off running as fast as he could and jumped on top of Tanner, slamming him to the floor of the cafeteria. Jack got in a few good licks before Tanner figured out what was going on and quickly gained the upper hand. It only took about three punches for Jack to get a fat lip, bloody nose, and broken glasses. Thankfully, there were a few teachers around to pull Tanner off before he did too much damage. As Jack was being tended to by the nurse, Sean was suffering his own bad luck as he had decided to "become one of the guys" and add some colorful language to his conversation with his buddies, only to be overheard by his teacher, Mrs. Greenfield.

"Sean Reagan! You can go to the principal's office right now, young man!" Sean immediately regretted trying to impress his buddies with foul language. He was sure his parents were going to dish out a punishment far worse than whatever punishment Mr. McCarthy was about to give him.

Mr. McCarthy had decided to suspend Jack for two days when Sean showed up. Sean had to write out Ephesians 4:29 fifty times. Since he had to call home to have Jack picked up, he figured he might as well have Sean picked up too. "Hey Danny, it's Dave McCarthy from St. Mary's. How are ya?"

"Not good, Dave, if I'm getting a call from the principal of my kids' school. What's up?"

"Well, it seems we've had two separate incidents today regarding your boys. Jack was involved in a fight. He's got a bloody nose, a busted lip, and his glasses were broken in the scuffle, but I've had the nurse check and double check and it appears he's going to be fine. However, as you know, we have a zero tolerance policy for fighting, so I've had to suspend him for two days and we're going to need for you to come and pick him up."

"Wonderful. What else?"

"Well, Sean chose to use some language inappropriate for a school setting when talking during free time with some of his buddies. Mrs. Greenfield overheard it and sent him to me. I thought since you were going to be picking up Jack, you might want to take him home so he can get started on the lengthy writing assignment that I have given him."

"Give me a few minutes to wrap up here and I'll be right there. Sorry about this Dave. Is Grace at least behaving?"

Mr. McCarthy laughed. "As far as I know, she's fine. The boys will be with me. We'll see you in a bit."

Actually, things were about to turn sour for Grace as well. Her PE class had gone out on the lacrosse field for some fresh air when they got the bright idea to play a pick-up game. Grace didn't know anything about lacrosse but that didn't stop her from going 90-to-nothing. In true Reagan fashion, she needed to win at whatever she was doing. Unfortunately, as she cut to score a goal, her knee went one way, she went the other, and she went down... hard.

"Gracer!" Millie yelled as she also dropped to the ground. "What was that? I heard a snap."  
Grace lay on the ground holding her knee as tightly to her chest as she could. "OWWW! Millie it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" she yelped as everyone else ran over to check on her.

Coach Mac rushed over the moment he saw someone down. "Lord, forgive me," he huffed as he ran, "but don't let it be one of my kids!" Coach Mac liked all his students, but he had a special place for his swim team. The sea of students parted as he made his way up and saw his star freestyle swimmer in tears, gripping her knee.

"Grace! What happened?"

"Something popped." She said as she sat up, attempting to gain her composure. "But I'm good now. I think it's numb. I'm fine." He was clearly unconvinced. "Come on, let's see if you can walk." The minute she tried to put pressure on it, she nearly collapsed, only to be caught by Parker.

"That's not good," Coach Mac grimaced. "Let's get you to the trainer."

He and Parker carried her to Coach Diggity, the athletic trainer for St. Mary's who diagnosed her with a torn ACL, as best he could tell. "Sorry Grace of Base, I've seen a lot of these and if my diagnosis is right, you're going to have to have surgery to repair it."

No!" Grace shouted. "It can't be. We have regionals on Saturday. I just need to ice it. It will be fine."

"I think we need to call home and get someone to get you to a doctor for an MRI," Coach Mac said glumly. "Want me to call Mom or Dad?"

"Doesn't matter," she sighed.

Thinking it might be easier for Danny to help carry Grace to the car, he called him. "What **now**?!" Danny thought, looking at his phone as he made his way through traffic to St. Mary's. "Reagan?"

"Hey Danny, it's Coach Mac."  
"Mac, don't tell me my daughter is in trouble. If she is, I'm driving off this bridge that I'm currently crossing and you're going to have to marry my wife and raise my kids."

"Sorry Danny. It is about Grace, but she didn't do anything bad. She did however have a little accident during PE and has messed up her knee. It is in both mine and Coach Diggity's opinion that she go and get an MRI. I'm afraid it's her ACL."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Believe me, I wish I was. Grace is my best swimmer."

"Look, Mac, I'm on my way to pick up my trouble making boys right now. As soon as I spring them from Dave's office, I'll be there."

"Ok. We'll keep her in the locker room. She's pretty upset."

"I'm sure."

Danny quickly placed a call to Linda as he was pulling into the parking lot of St. Mary's.

"Hey Danny."  
"Hey Babe. Look, I've got to make this quick. You aren't going to believe it. I got a call from the school and both your boys are in trouble and are being sent home. Jack for fighting and Sean for doing something… I don't really remember. I think bad language. Anyway, as I'm on my way to get them, I get a call from Mac that Grace has somehow managed to tear up her knee in PE class. He thinks she's torn her ACL and needs to go get an MRI."

"WHAT?"  
"Yeah. So. I'm going to get Starsky and Hutch out of the principal's office and then get Grace. Should I bring her to you? I'm assuming she'll have to have a referral before she can get in to see the Orthopedic doctor."

"Yeah. Bring her here and we'll figure it out."

"Ok. Just pulled up. Gotta go."

"Love you!"

Danny walked into the office to find Jack and Sean both staring at their shoes. "Have you two lost your minds?! Hello Mrs. Appleby."

"Hi Danny. Mr. McCarthy said for you to come on back," she smiled.

"Dave," Danny said, extending a hand for a handshake.

"Hey man. Sorry to bring you down here like this. Like I said on the phone, zero tolerance for fighting. I had to send him home. From what I can tell, the other kid has been picking on him and instead of telling someone, Jack just had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands. The other boy has about thirty pounds on him though, so I'm afraid Jack bore the brunt of the blows."

"And Sean?"

"Trying to be cool in front of his buddies. They wanted to discuss all the words they had learned from a certain magazine…"

"Ah…"

"Needless to say, poor Mrs. Greenfield was mortified. I gave him a Bible verse about speech edification that he has to write for me fifty times by Friday."

"I'll make sure he does… while sitting on a sore backside."

"They're good kids, Danny. Just a bit of bad judgement today."

"I'd say so. Look, I hate to grab them and run, but on my way over, Mac called."

"I heard. I've already checked on Grace. She's pretty wound up about missing regionals. Hopefully it will just be a strain or something and she'll be fine by Saturday."

"But you doubt it?"

"I doubt it, but I'm also a priest. I should always offer hope."

Danny chuckled as he got up and shook hands with Mr. McCarthy again. "Thanks, Dave."

"I'll take care of getting the kids checked out. Go get Grace. You can pull around the school and straight up to the door of the gym. Mac and Diggity have her in the locker room."

Danny walked out and glanced at the boys. "Let's go. Now." They got up and followed him out without a word.

"Dad, where are we going?" Jack asked as they turned to go behind the school instead of toward the road.

"We've got to get your sister. She's hurt her knee." He pulled right up to the door of the gym and looked at the boys. "Wait here." Danny made his way inside and to the locker room where Hailey, Millie, Taylor, Parker, another guy from the swim team, Wes, and Coach Mac were all standing around with Grace and Coach Diggity. "Hey everybody. How's my girl?"

"Not good," Grace sighed.

"Hailey did you do this because I wouldn't let her celebrate your birthday?" Danny joked, trying to get a smile out of the somber crew.

Hailey frowned at him. "No I didn't. This is what happened. Her knee when one way, she went the other."

"I heard something pop," Millie whispered. Danny nodded as Parker walked over toward him.

"Hey, Detective Reagan. My dad is an orthopedic surgeon at St. Vic's," Parker said. "I already texted him…"

Grace looked up at him with big tears in her eyes, but clearly trying to fight the urge to cry in front of her friends. "Diggity and I think it'd probably be best to go get it checked out," Coach Mac said with a reassuring pat to her back.  
"Yeah. We're headed that way. Mama's waiting on us," he said as he walked over and gave Grace a hug, and a chance to release some of her tears so nobody would see her. "Can you put any weight on it?" Grace just shook her head 'no'.

"Ok. Good thing I've been working out," he joked as he picked her up and carried her to the jeep.

"Give us a call when you know something," Coach Mac said, genuinely concerned.

"Will do, Mac. Thanks."

"What are you guys doing?" Grace asked, looking to her brothers as Danny dropped her in the front seat.

"Don't ask," Sean mumbled.

"What? Are you both in trouble?" She turned around so she could look at Jack. "Oh my gosh! Jackers! What happened?"

"Your brother decided to play Rocky in the school cafeteria," Danny grumbled.

"Did you at least win?" Grace asked.

"Does it look like he won?" Sean snickered as Jack reached over and punched him in the side of the leg.

"OWWWW!"

"Boys! That's enough! Danny threatened. They rode in silence the rest of the way to St. Vic's. Linda met them outside the Emergency Room doors with a wheel chair. "Hey Babe, I'm gonna go park. I'll meet you inside." Grace didn't have to wait, despite all of the people filling the waiting room. Dr. Phelps had called down and instructed them to take her straight to get an MRI and then call him when the results were in.

Linda stayed with her, leaving the boys to sit in the emergency room. That was perfectly fine with the two of them. She had given them a simple look that let them know her wrath was to come later… after she had seen to Grace. Danny parked the car and joined them.

"Scoot," he ordered, taking a seat in between them. "So who wants to start?" Jack looked to Sean, who was doing everything in his willpower to send his older brother ESP that he clearly didn't want to speak. "Fine. I'll pick. Sean. You're up. What exactly did you say?"

"I don't think I should repeat it."

"Well if you can't repeat it, you shouldn't have said it the first time."

"I know."

"What'd Mr. McCarthy say?"  
"I've got to write Ephesians 4:29 fifty times before Friday. He said I can work on it at home and I have to do it during PE."

"That's wonderful. You are also grounded and will not be attending Kyle's sleepover this weekend."

"But Dad…"

"Not up for discussion. You do something stupid, you pay the consequence." He turned to Jack. "What about you? Mr. McCarthy said some boy's been hassling you." Jack sighed. "Come on kid, talk. What's he messing with you about?"

"He's just a bully. No big deal."

"Uh Jack if you jump someone in the cafeteria and get suspended for two days, it's a big deal."

"He steals my lunch every day and likes to make it rain on Wednesdays, i.e. he pours whatever he may be drinking down my back as he walks by. I just couldn't take it anymore."

"Face hurt?"

Jack nodded.

"Grounded for two weeks, got it?"

"Yes sir."

"I'll get Mom to make an appointment to get you some new glasses." Linda came through the door and motioned to Danny. "Stay put. I'll be back."

Dr. Phelps had just entered the room when they got back to where Grace was sitting. "So this is the famous Grace Reagan!" he smiled as he walked in and shook her hand. "It's nice to formally meet you. My son thinks a lot of you."

"Well I think a lot of him," Grace sheepishly smiled back as Danny, cut his eyes to Linda, mortified.

"Mind if I poke around on your knee for a minute?"

Grace winced as he moved it back and forth, confirming the diagnosis of the MRI.

"I'm Danny Reagan, the father," Danny butted in. "What are we looking at, Doc?"

"Well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that it is definitely a torn ACL." Grace deflated. She knew swimming was done. At that point, she checked out of the conversation, yet he continued. "The good news is that I can do your surgery and with rehab, you'll be back to 100% by next season."

"See, Gracie! Dr. Phelps can make you good as new!" Linda smiled.

"How about by Saturday? Regionals are Saturday."

"I wish I could. There's no way you'll be able to swim though… at least not to the level you are used to. Pushing off would absolutely kill you." Danny made his way over to Grace and slipped an arm around her as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Want me to give you something for the pain?" Grace nodded. He wrote up some orders and handed them to the nurse before whispering for her to bring in some pain medicine, anti-inflammatories, and crutches. "Ok Mom and Dad, what day works best for surgery? I would get her in tomorrow, but it's best not to do surgery on ACLs right away. We need to give the inflammation time to go down. How will Monday morning at 6am work?"

Danny and Linda looked to each other before looking to Grace.

"I don't care," she muttered burying her face in her hands.

"That will be just fine, Doctor Phelps," Linda whispered.

"I'm sorry, Miss Grace. I wish I had better news for you," Dr. Phelps said as he patted her shoulder. "I'm going to get you fitted for a brace. I want you to wear it until you come back and try to stay off of it and keep it elevated."

"Yes sir," Grace sighed, wiping her eyes. "Thanks, Dr. Phelps."

"I'm going to get your surgery set up and get you guys on your way. I'll see you on Monday."

"Thanks, Doc," Danny said, shaking his hand.

Danny and Linda both knew better to say anything at that moment. Grace needed a minute to process, so they just loved on her as best they could. "I need to go make a call," Danny said, remembering Coach Mac's request. I'll be right back." He stepped out into the hallway and called the coach, who, like Grace, was devastated.

"I'll tell the girls, and please tell Grace we'll be there rooting for her."

"Thanks for loving my kid, Mac."

Since they hadn't returned with the brace, Danny decided to make another quick call to Frank.

"Hello Detective."  
"Not Detective. Father of your very sad granddaughter. Got a minute?"  
Anytime one of the grandkids was mentioned, Frank's ears immediately perked up, especially when it didn't sound like good news. "For Ella Grace, I've got two minutes. What's up?"

"Long story short, she twisted her knee at PE and tore her ACL. We're just about to leave the ER. Doc says she's got to have surgery on Monday."

"What?"

"Yeah. She's pretty upset about missing her swim regionals on Saturday. I thought you might find a reason to check on her later."

"You got it."  
"Thanks, Commissioner."

"Not Commissioner. Grandpa." Frank smiled. "Kiss my granddaughter for me."

"You got it."

Danny opened the door for Dr. Phelps as he came back in to put the brace on Grace. They were ready to go in less than ten minutes. "Hey Babe, how about you take the boys and let me and Gracie go for a drive. I thought I may take her to get some ice cream. That always helped when she was younger."

"Ok."  
"And you may want to have a discussion with your youngest about what is and is not appropriate to say while at Catholic school."

"I don't even know what he did."  
"Oh just ask him what he said. I'm confident you will be able to find a few words to say."

Linda loaded up the boys as Danny and Grace got in the Jeep. "Where are we going?" Grace asked as Danny pulled over at McGharety's Diner.

"I thought we could stop here for dessert."  
"Dad, I'm not five anymore. Ice cream won't make this better."

"Yeah, but Pete McGharety's famous chocolate brownie Sunday definitely won't make it any worse."

They had just received the biggest chocolate Sunday known to man with both a chocolate chip cookie and brownie underneath the ice cream, covered in whipped cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles, when Jim Nusaforo walked in.

"Well I'll be," Danny smiled as two steps later, Frank came through the door.

"What?" Grace asked as she turned around. "Grandpa?"

"Hey, look who's here," Frank smiled as he took a seat beside his granddaughter.

"What in the world are you doing here?" Danny asked.

"Well, my Grace radar went off and I thought I'd come and have a strawberry milkshake with the two of you."  
"How did you know where to find us?"

"Ah, I just figured you'd take Grace to the same place your mom used to take you when you had a crappy day."

Danny looked shocked. "You _knew_ about that?"

"I'm the Police Commissioner. I know everything," Frank smiled wryly.

"You weren't the PC when Mom and I would sneak off for chocolate brownie Sundays..."

"No. I didn't find out until years later... You see Grace, your Grandma used to bring your Dad here when he'd had a tough day. Like the time he broke his arm, or the time he got dumped by his first girlfriend…"  
"Or the time I found out Uncle Jamie was going to be born and I had to share a room with Aunt Erin."

"It's a special place."

"And now it's our place," Danny smiled. "You and me, Kid."

Grace smiled. "Thanks, Dad."

When Grace and Danny got home, Grace bounced in the front door on her crutches in a much better spirit.

"Hey," Linda smiled with open arms as she greeted her with a hug. "Want some dinner?"

"I really just want a shower."

"Ok. Go upstairs and shower first then come back down and eat something. Daddy and I will be down here when you finish. Yell if you need any help."

They watched Grace carefully make her way up the stairs before walking into the kitchen. "So it went well?"

"Well as could be expected. Dad met us over there. She'll be fine. How'd it go here?"  
"You were right."  
"What?" Danny laughed as he nearly choked on the piece of garlic bread he had in his mouth as he made his way to the table with a bowl of chicken alfredo pasta. "You're actually saying I was right?"

"You don't even know what this is about…" she scoffed.

"Doesn't matter. You just said I was right!"

"Danny!"  
"Ok. I'm sorry. What was I right about?"  
"Sean."

"Ah…"

"Yeah. I wasn't going to do anything, but then he told me exactly what he said. It only took about two seconds before I gave him an ear full and marched him over to the sink to wash out his mouth. Who knew they still wrote such filthy things in magazines?"

"He seem sorry?"

"I would certainly hope so. He's upstairs at his desk, writing that verse and another one that I picked out for him an additional thirty times. He better only be quoting scripture to his buddies from now on instead of... that."

"So… if I tell you how hot you look right now and I use some dirty words, will I be in trouble too?" Danny whispered with a twinkle in his eye. "I mean, I don't want to write a verse or anything, but the way you're holding that wooden spoon looks pretty hot."

Linda rolled her eyes as she took a seat across from him. "Let's talk about Jack."

Danny sighed, his moves clearly getting him nowhere. "I grounded him for two weeks."

"Should I go to the school? Do we need to suggest peer-to-peer counselling?" Linda asked, ever on guard and ready to swoop in and get everything sorted out.

"Definitely not. You do that and the bullying is sure to continue. I think Jack handled it today. He fought back and didn't back down."

"Danny… we don't endorse fighting."

"I didn't endorse it. He's grounded, but I think he may've solved the problem without us having to intervene. I'm more worried about Gracie."

"I thought your talk went well."

"It did. But now she doesn't have swimming as a distraction."

Just then, Grace came stumbling back down the stairs. "Hold on, Sassy, I'll help you," Jack said as he got to one side of her and helped her navigate her way to the dining room.

"Thanks, Jackers."

"Ready for dinner?" Linda asked as she got up and fixed Grace a plate.

"I'm not really hungry," Grace said as she picked around at her pasta. "I was doing some reading though."

"Really? What about?"

"Well, when professional athletes tweak something but have a big game, they go to the doctor and get a steroid shot. I was just thinking if I could get Dr. Phelps to put a Cortizone shot in my knee…"

"No," Danny and Linda both said at the same time.

"But why?"

"We aren't starting that."

"But it's not like it can get any worse. It's torn. It can't tear more. And it would only be this one time."

"No drugs," Linda said. "Period."

"Mom, it's not drugs. It's…"

"No."

Grace dropped her fork and ran her hands over her face in frustration, a move that looked exactly like Danny Reagan. "Well can I at least have my prescribed drugs? My knee is killing me."

"Easy," Danny warned as Linda got up and got one of Grace's pain pills and one of her anti-inflammatories.

"You've got to eat before you get them though. If not, it will make you sick."

"Yes ma'am," Grace sighed as she took a bite of pasta before looking at Jack and his poor lip. "Jackers, you want half of my pill? From the looks of your face you could use it."

Jack grinned. "Nah. I'm good… just a little sore. You know Gracie, the upside to all of this is that I'm grounded for the next two weeks, so at least we'll be able to keep each other company."

"Thanks, Jack. And no offense, but I'd rather be hanging out with you for any other reason than a busted knee."

"Can't blame you there. I don't really want to be grounded either."

"Could be worse. Could be Seany."

"True."

"Who's up for some Reagan Family Fun?" Linda asked, attempting to rally the troops. "Let's watch a movie. Grace's pick."

"How about The Patriot?" Grace dead-panned, "I'm pretty sure a leg gets mangled that movie. It will be reminiscent of my day."

"Try again," Danny suggested.

"Jaws? Does the shark actually bite off a leg?" Linda shook her head as she got up and began to clear. "Oh I know, Forrest Gump. Lt. Dan loses both legs, and while he does swim in the ocean, I'm pretty sure he wasn't going to be swimming in the Olympics anytime soon." Danny frowned at Grace as Jack tried to cover his laughter by taking a drink of soda. "Too far?"

"Yeah Grace, too far."


	8. Chapter 8

Saturday morning, Linda got up and fixed breakfast before heading to work. Danny was tasked with waking up three kids that were not excited to be getting up at 7:00am on the weekend. Jack and Sean, always up for a meal, grumbled at first and then their feet hit the floor and they were ready for bacon, eggs, and biscuits. Grace, on the other hand, rolled over and refused to get up.

"Come on, Gracie. We've got to get going and you need to eat before we go."

"Go? Go where? I can't walk. The only place I'm going today is downstairs to watch television and that's even up for debate at this point. I may just lay in bed all day."

"No ma'am. You have to get up. You cannot wallow. You need to eat and get dressed. We've got to get on the road if we want to get to McClancy by 9:00am."

"No thank you."

"You said that like you have a choice," Danny said as he turned on the light and pulled the covers off of his very annoyed daughter.

"Dad! I don't want to go watch the stupid swim regionals. Newsflash. I can't swim; therefore, I don't want to go."

"Get up, Ella Grace. Your best friends are swimming their most important races of the season today. You have to be there to support them. It's not about what you _want_ to do, it's what you _should_ do. Sometimes we have to do things that suck because it's just the right thing to do. Now get up and come eat some breakfast."

"UGH!" Grace screamed in frustration as she sat up and threw her pillow across the room. Seeing there was no other choice, she got up and got dressed and made her way, angrily down to the dining room.

"Hey," Linda smiled as she put an arm around Grace, "how do you feel this morning?"

"Annoyed."

"Excuse me?"

"Not at you, Mom. At your incredibly annoying husband who just came into my room like a whirlwind and demanded I get up and go to the swim regionals. As if not getting to swim isn't enough. Let's go watch my replacement."

"Try again," Linda directed, sternly.

"I'm fine," Grace sighed. "Thank you for breakfast."

Danny dropped Sean off at one of his friend's houses before he, Jack, and Grace made their way to McClancy High School right in the heart of New York City. Ever the comedian, he tried to get Grace fired up before going inside. He began dancing as he made up the world's dumbest cheer/song. "Blue and green. We're the swimming machines. If you mess with us, we'll cut your spleen. We are the Panthers…the Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa- Panthers... we like to swim and we're also dancers…"

"Dad! No." Grace said as she bounced into the aquatic center. Jack laughed as Danny hung his head and followed her inside.

"Gracer!" Hailey yelled from the sidelines as she and the rest of the girls waved as they got ready to be announced. Grace waved back and quickly decided she wasn't climbing any higher than two rows of bleachers. Danny took a seat beside her as Jack took off to go sit with all of his friends.

"Grace of Base!"

"Hey Coach Diggity." Everyone's favorite Athletic Trainer walked over and gave her a hug before shaking hands with Danny.

"How ya makin' it today?"

"Ok," Grace shrugged as Coach Mac also walked over.

"How's my #1?"

"Who's swimming anchor? Meg?"  
"Bridgette, actually. She got the best times for the year… after you of course. She's got a little more experience than Meg. I think as long as she's got a lead, she'll be fine."

"Junior Olympic scouts are here," Grace sighed, eyeing two guys in Junior Olympics jackets with clipboards and stop watches on the top row of bleachers.

"They'll be back. You know they're always at regionals."

"Yeah."

"Hey, I've got to get going. We'll see you after the race. We're swimming this one for you."

Danny tried not to notice Grace fighting back tears, but couldn't help it. He handed her a handkerchief and patted her on the back. "This sucks," she grumbled as she angrily wiped away a tear.  
"Yeah…" he agreed. "It does indeed suck."

"Grace Reagan!" Mr. McCarthy smiled as she quickly tried to pull it together. "Good to see you here! How are you feeling?"  
"Fine, Mr. McCarthy. Thanks."

He looked to Danny for a little more clarification. "We've got surgery scheduled for Monday. She should be back at school by Wednesday."

"Don't worry about school. We'll get you caught up when you get back. Just feel better."

"Thanks."

Girls' relays were next to last. They had to sit through all the individual races first. Millie came in third in backstroke, Taylor got second in breaststroke, and Hailey blew everyone away on butterfly. Much like Hailey, Parker crushed it in butterfly and also in freestyle. As expected when it came time for the girls' relay, Hailey, Millie, and Taylor gave Bridgette such a huge lead that while her swim wasn't quite as good as Grace's normally was, it was still good enough to get the win by half a body length. After that, the boys' relay wasn't even a contest. With Parker as anchor, they won by half a pool length. The St. Mary's crowd went wild.

Grace was up and ready to go as soon as St. Mary's was declared winner of the last relay. "Hold on," Danny said, pulling at the arm of her hoodie. "Let's tell the girls congratulations." It didn't take too long for the dream team to make their way over to the Reagans. Lucky for Grace, Parker also found his way over.

"Hey," he grinned as he walked up behind her and grabbed her hips. She turned around and smiled for the first time all day.

"Hey. Hailey, would you mind…"

"Distracting your dad? I'm on it."

"Thanks."  
"So… I can't kiss you in front of your dad?" he asked, smiling from ear to ear.

Grace glanced back at Hailey who had thrown an arm around Danny and had led him off to talk to some random people on the other side of the center. "Not if you want to live, but I don't see the detective anywhere around… so…"  
With that, Parker kissed Grace, immediately eliminating all of the crappiness of the previous few days. "Why Mr. Phelps, I do believe your form was a bit off and I know you won't accept anything less than a perfect 10. Care to try again?"

"You say that like I'm a diver…"  
"You have dove… dived… diven…"

"Shut up," he laughed as he kissed her again, this time for much longer. "That better?"  
Grace grinned and pretended to think hard. "Well, that was better. I think with a bit of practice, and a great coach, you'll do just fine, Mr. Phelps."

"Uh, excuse me, you two… we gotta go," Jack said, breaking up the happy couple.

"Jackers, can't you buy me two more minutes?"

"No. Dad's headed this way, so unless you two want to explain why your lips have been touching and I'm assuming, tongues as well, we gotta go. Now."

"Bye, Parker."

"See ya later, Grace."

Grace bounced out the door to wait on Danny to pull the car to the front of the school. "You look way too happy, Sas. Dad's going to know you were sucking face if you don't lose the goofy look."

"Jackers, one day, you're going to suck face and I'm going to remind you of this conversation."

"Just trying to keep your boyfriend alive."

"He's really hot, isn't he?" Grace grinned as Jack just rolled his eyes. "Right?!"

Sunday dinner was filled with all of Grace's favorite foods. Unfortunately, no amount of mac and cheese or Pop's honey butter dinner rolls could make the impending surgery any better. Grace was a bottle of nerves and they could all tell it. Everyone tried to calm her down. Pop told jokes, Frank had his normal anecdotes, Erin and Nicki told about going to Fashion Week, and Jamie even tried to make up a completely bogus story about arresting a celebrity, but nothing worked. Finally, Danny gave up and decided they had best get home anyway since they had to be up so early the next morning.

"Boys, do exactly what Pop says. One of us will pick you up from school tomorrow," Linda instructed as she hugged them.

"Will do," Jack assured her. "Bye Sassy. Good luck."

"Yeah break a leg," Sean said as Grace gave him a very confused look. "Well, you know what I mean. Good luck."

"Thanks."

It didn't take long for Danny and Linda to find their way to Grace's room that night. She was, understandably, a basket case. She kept bouncing on her crutches from one side of the room to the other, swinging her leg as high as she possibly could, making Linda even more nervous than her daughter.

"Hey Firstborn, come sit down with me and Mama for a minute and let's talk."

"I can't. I can't sit down. I'm…"

"You're about to swing your leg so hard you're going to topple over backwards. Come sit."

Exhausted, Grace finally conceded and joined her parents sitting on her bed. "That's better," Linda smiled as she held Grace's hand. "Want to tell us what's going through that head of yours?"

"I don't want to do this."

"What? Surgery?" Danny asked. "You're going to be fine. It's a one-day thing. You'll be home tomorrow night."

"I know."  
"Then what has got you so upset, Gracie?"

"I don't know. It just…"

"Sucks?" Danny asked as Linda frowned at him.

"Yeah…" Grace chuckled. "It just sucks."

"I'm going to wash both your mouths out with soap," Linda laughed. "Language!"

"Sorry Mama,"

"Yeah, sorry Mama," Danny smiled guiltily. "Hey kiddo, you need to get in bed. We've got to get up super early to be at the hospital by 6:00am."

"Ok," Grace sighed as she scooted back to the middle of the bed and laid down as Linda piled pillows up underneath her leg.

"Comfy?"

Grace nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Love you."

"Love you too, sweet girl," Linda smiled as she gave her a hug. "We'll see you in the morning."

Danny walked over to the bay window and picked up the stuffed monkey Grace had gotten for her third birthday. Hardly a night had gone by without that monkey sleeping with Grace until she turned fourteen. He non-chalantly walked over and tucked the monkey under the covers with his head resting on a pillow.

"What are you doing?"

"I just thought Chunky Monkey might sleep better next to you tonight." A single tear rolled down Grace's cheek as she reached over and grabbed the monkey. "You're going to be fine. Promise. And we'll be there the whole time." He reached over and kissed the middle of her forehead. "Get some rest, ok? Love you."

"Love you too."

Rest was nowhere in sight for Grace. She tossed and turned for about an hour before she looked at the clock and realized it was 11:30pm. If she wanted to eat or drink, this was the time to do it. She wasn't allowed to have anything after midnight and was getting somewhat hungry considering she had barely touched her dinner. Grace hopped down to the kitchen and after raiding the fridge, made herself a tv tray full of yogurt, cereal, cheese toast, and peanut butter crackers. She enjoyed her tasty snacks before drinking two bottles of water and sitting down in front of the television to get lost in an American Revolution documentary.

Linda found her still on the couch the following morning. "Tell me you did not eat this stuff this morning."

Grace stretched as she rubbed her eyes. "I didn't."

"Really?"

"Really." Linda looked at her long and hard for the rest of the story. "I ate it at 11:30pm last night."

"Ella Grace! Go get ready. We've got to leave in 45 minutes."

Grace bounced back upstairs, got dressed, and brushed her teeth. Danny met her in the hallway as she was coming out of the bathroom. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'm going to get."

"Ok. Let's go fix that knee."

The Reagans arrived at the hospital shortly before 5:00am. Not surprisingly, Frank was standing at the desk when they walked in.

Danny and Linda both just smiled as Grace hopped in and straight into his arms.

"There's my girl!"

"Grandpa, what are you doing here?"

"I had to come make sure everyone here knew who they were taking care of today."  
"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I'll hang out with your folks and make sure everything goes as planned."

"Hey Linda," the nurse at the desk said. "You and Grace can come on back."

"I'll see you in a little while," Frank smiled.

"Bye Grandpa."

Danny gave her a kiss on the forehead as she wrapped her arms around him. "Love you."

"I don't think I can let go," she whispered.

"You're going to be fine. Go put your paper gown on. The quicker you do that, the quicker this whole thing is over."

"Ok," Grace shuttered, trying to steel her nerves.

"You've got this. Go with Mama. I'll be there in a minute."

"Little bit of nerves?" Frank smiled as he and Danny took a seat in the waiting room.

"She is a bundle of nerves. I thought she was going to wear a hole in the upstairs carpet pacing back and forth last night."

"How are you?"

"Fine. Baez is playing house mouse until I get there…"

"I mean, how are you with all of _this_?"

Danny took a deep breath and smiled. It still amazed him that his dad always knew when something was bothering him. "That's my little girl in there that they are about to operate on. I think I'm more nervous than she is."

Frank chuckled. "That sounds about right."

Linda and Grace followed Nurse Sam back to pre-op. Grace was given her paper gown and a couple of warm blankets. "Change into this and I'll be right back to start your iv. Ok?"

"Yes ma'am. And just for the record, I'm not a fan of being naked under this thing."

"Don't worry," Sam laughed. "You aren't the first one to feel that way." She pulled out a marker and handed it to Linda. "Make sure you mark which leg we're supposed to be working on. Ok?"

"Ok."

Sam stepped out as Linda helped Grace undress and put on her paper gown. The second it was on, she got under the pile of blankets and only stuck her ankle out far enough for Linda to write YES on it, then pulled it back under. It wasn't too long before Sam returned with an iv. "Ok, Miss Grace. Ready?" Grace nodded as Sam placed a blood pressure cuff on her arm and a pulse oximeter on her finger. "I'm going to start your iv now." Grace turned her face away and closed her eyes, bracing for the pinch. Linda held her hand and tried to make her think of something else.

"Want to say a prayer?"

"Not while I'm being stabbed."

After Sam got the iv in place, she explained that the anestheologist would be in soon to start the start the nerve block in Grace's femoral artery.

"My WHAT?"

"Don't worry, honey. He's going to give you a sedative first. You won't feel a thing."

"I'm out. I don't want to do this."

"You're going to be fine, Grace. I'm going to go get Daddy so he can see you before you go back." Linda started to walk out then turned back around. "Do not leave," she said with a smile as she winked at her very freaked out daughter.

Linda went out to the waiting room where Frank was reading the paper and Danny was kicked back beside him, relaxing. "Hey, she's about to get loopy. Come see her before she goes out."

"You go," Frank said as Danny looked to him.

Danny got up and followed Linda back to pre-op. "She's freaking out about the nerve block."

"Aren't they going to knock her out?"

"Sort of. He'll give her a sedative first so she won't feel it."

"How's it going in here, Gracie?" Danny asked as Dr. Hampton came in to give her the sedative.

"Will you take me home now?"

"Not yet. I will stay with you until you go back though. Did Mama mark the right foot?" He pulled back the covers and took a look at her feet. "Yep. You're good to go." He got up on the gurney and wrapped his arms around Grace, who was shaking like a flower in the wind.

"Daddy, please don't let them do this… I want to go home."

"Oh my goodness," Danny chuckled as he squeezed her tight. "You're going to be fine. In a few minutes, you won't know a thing."

"Let's say our prayer now," Linda suggested as she grabbed Grace's hand and Danny's hand before leading them in a prayer. After that, it didn't take long for the medicine to begin to work. Grace got incredibly loopy by the time Dr. Hampton came in to do the femoral block.

"We doing a little better in here?"  
"I'd say so," Linda answered as Grace gave him a big thumbs up with eyes still closed as she smiled and hummed a random song they'd never heard.

"Ok, Gracie. I'm gonna go so Dr. H can do his thing," Danny said as he got up. "I'll see you in a little while. I love you."

"Bye Daddy!" Grace waved with a completely goofy look on her face. "Go…. get you some ice cream. And me an ephalant. I need an ephalant... and gum."

Danny laughed as he kissed her head. "Take care of my little girl, Doc."

"Will do, Detective Reagan."

Once Grace was taken back to the operating room, it only took about an hour and a half for Dr. Phelps to fix her knee. Danny got up an hour into the surgery and didn't stop pacing until they got the call that she was out. "See there, she's fine," Frank smiled. "I hate to run, but I've got a press conference at 9am. I'll be back as soon as it's over. Don't tell Grace I was gone."

"Thanks Frank," Linda said as she got up to hug him.

By the time Grace was out of recovery, most of the Reagan clan was there as well as Coach Mac. Henry had arrived first, followed by Jamie who wasn't due at roll call until 2:00pm and Erin who had taken an early day. As soon as Frank finished his press conference, he rejoined the waiting room crew. "Still in recovery?"

"Apparently Grace doesn't handle anesthesia very well. She got a little sick. That extended her time in the recovery room. She should be out any minute." About that time, a very handsome orderly wheeled Grace out.

"There she is!" Henry announced. "How are you feeling, Princess?"

"Ok, Pop. I've got some pretty good drugs in me right now. I can't believe you're all here. Thanks for coming."

They all walked over one-by-one for a hug. "Parker said he'll be by to kiss you wounds later," Coach Mac whispered in Grace's ear, which made them both laugh much to the bewilderment of the Reagans.

"Mac…"

"Just sending well wishes from some of the kids," Mac smiled. "Speaking of which, I've got to get back to school. Gracer, I'll see you back in the pool in a couple of weeks."

"Thanks, Coach."

"So, can I drive your chariot?" Jamie grinned as he grabbed the handles to the wheelchair.

"Absolutely."

"Oh, hey. I got you something." He dangled a necklace in front of her face at eye level.

"A fish?"

"To remind you to get back in the water… as fast as possible."

Grace smiled. "Thank you, Uncle Jamie."

"You got it, Grace."


	9. Chapter 9

Danny helped Grace to the couch when they got home. They knew there was no way she was going to be able to navigate the staircase so everyone agreed she would spend, at least the first night, on the couch. She had been battling bouts of nausea all the way home and was turning green when she finally took a seat on the couch. Linda brought a fresh garbage can and placed it beside her while she went to find Grace some pajamas. Danny was helping her take off her shoes when she could hold it no longer, grabbed the garbage can, and began throwing up.

"Uh oh," Danny said as he got up and held back her hair. He rubbed small circles on her back until she finished and then walked out to get a cool cloth and a bottle of water. "Here you go. Rinse your mouth." Grace sloshed some water around in her mouth and spit it out while Danny wiped the back of her neck and her face with the cool cloth. "You ok?"

"Dad, I feel so bad."

"I know, baby. Once that anesthesia is out of you though, you'll start to feel better."

"Did they send anything for nausea or just for pain?"

"I'm not sure." Linda rejoined them with pajamas in hand. "Hey Mama, did they send anything for nausea?"

"Did you get sick again, Gracie?" Linda asked as she walked over and pulled Grace's hair back and tied it up in a sloppy bun. Grace nodded sadly. Linda really did feel terrible for her. As if dealing with season ending surgery wasn't enough, now she was sick as a dog. Linda got up and switched out the garbage can liner. It was one thing for Danny to comfort the kids while they were sick, but had he actually had to deal with the vomit, he would've probably lost his lunch too. She came back carrying nausea medicine. "Think you can take this? It should help."

Not long after taking her medicine, Grace fell asleep. "Hey Babe, I'm going to run and work for a few hours. I promised Baez we'd try to wrap up the Milano homicide paperwork today. Will you two be ok until I get back?"

"Oh yeah. We'll be fine. Grace should sleep for a little while. I may even try to catch a nap."

"Ok. Call me if you need me."

Linda stretched out in the recliner and quickly fell fast asleep. Neither she nor Grace stirred until Jack and Sean came barreling through the door after school. They both stretched as the boys dropped their stuff by the front door and rushed into the livingroom.

"Hey Sassy! How was it?"

"The knee is fine. The vomit sucks." Linda cleared her throat as the boys laughed. "Sorry. The vomit stinks. Literally."

"Want to watch a movie?"

"After homework," Linda instructed, pointing at the kitchen table. "Get started and I'll fix you all a snack."

Grace did fine the rest of the evening. The family joined her in the living room for dinner and they all watched a movie before the boys got sent up to bed. Linda made sure she was comfortable before heading to bed herself. Danny checked to make sure everything was locked and the boys were in bed before making one last swing through the living room. Grace was already asleep, so he turned off the lamp and went to bed.

Unfortunately, the good drugs Dr. Phelps had pumped into Grace wore off shortly after 3am and she woke up in extreme pain. She was pretty sure Linda had left her pain medicine in the kitchen, so she pulled herself up and started the hunt. After five minutes of unsuccessful plundering, Grace made her way to Danny and Linda's room, in tears.

"Mom!" she whispered from the doorway. "Mama!"

"What is it? What's wrong? Why are you up?"

"My knee hurts."

Linda sat up and turned on the light to reveal Grace's red eyes and tear stained cheeks. "Oh Sweetie. Come sit with Daddy," she said as she got up. "I'll go get you something for the pain." Grace hopped over to the edge of the bed where Linda helped her get up and in before piling pillows to prop up her leg.

"Come here," Danny said as he opened his arms and Grace leaned up against him.

"Dad, what if I can't swim anymore?" Grace cried as he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.

"You will. You've just got to give it time. You're not even twenty-four hours out of surgery. You'll be back and you'll be stronger."

"Yeah, but how do you know?"

"You're a Reagan. I know."

Grace stayed off her knee as instructed and it soon began to heal, but it took a toll on her emotional state. The deeper her friends got into the State Swim Meet, the sadder she got. Danny and Linda were quick to notice, but weren't quite sure what to do. They really didn't know what to do when they came home and their daughter's normally light brown hair with blonde highlights had been dyed jet black. Linda grabbed Danny's forearm and braced herself as Danny's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Um…. Grace?"

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Did you do something different with your hair?"  
"Yeah. Felt like going black."

"Sassy, you look like Wednesday Addams." Jack and Sean both stared in amazement.

"Any other changes you want to tell us about?" Danny asked. "Tattoos? Piercings?"

"Not at the moment," Grace answered as she limped past them and grabbed a yogurt out of the refrigerator. "It's just hair, guys. I didn't sell my soul to the Devil or anything."

"That's reassuring, Sunshine."

"Oh Mom, I need you to sign this form." Grace handed Linda a waded up piece of paper.

"You want to drop first period swim?"

"I can't swim, so I might as well switch it to study hall."  
"But you'll be back in the water as soon as the knee heals."

"Yeah well, I'm useless right now, so Coach Mac suggested I do the responsible thing and start working on my term paper."

"Ok," Linda said as she grabbed a pen and signed her name.

Danny looked at his sad daughter. "But you can switch back once the knee heals, right?"

"I guess," Grace shrugged. "Or I'll just get back in next year. No big deal either way." With that, she grabbed the form and yogurt and limped back up to her room with Jack and Sean on her heels trying to lift her spirits.

"Seems like a big deal to me," Linda sighed.

"You got that right. We need to do something to perk her up. How about you get her to invite the girls over this weekend? As much as I hate the sleep I miss when I have to listen to squealing girls and loud music, I'll be glad to pull an all-nighter to have our Gracie back."  
"Can't. They have swim. It's two weeks until State. They'll be in tournaments."

"How about a trip? We could go away for the weekend."

"We're broke until the first of the month."

"Can I buy her a puppy?"

"Not unless you plan on sleeping in the accompanying doghouse." Danny frowned at Linda as he sighed, frustrated he couldn't figure out what to do. "Look, just be there for her. She'll come around eventually. We've just got to get her through the next few weeks."

Grace didn't come around. She did, however, learn that it was possible to get Jack to get Sean up and dressed and both of them on the bus while she slept in. She would eventually check herself in after study hall was over. There really wasn't a reason for the delay in her day, she just couldn't get inspired to get to school on time if she wasn't hitting the water first thing.

"Hey Mrs. Appleby!" Mr. McCarthy called from his office, "are you sure this report is right?"

Mrs. Appleby got up and made her way to his door. "I checked it three times."  
"How in the world has Grace Reagan been late every day for the past two weeks? Is she going to rehab in the mornings?"  
"I haven't gotten any excuses from her. If she is, I'll be glad to put them in, but she always just signs in with no discussion. She looks sad."

"Let me get her up here and find out what's going on. Jack and Sean haven't been late have they?"

"No sir." Mr. McCarthy leaned over and pressed his intercom button.

"Grace Reagan, please report to the office."

Grace eventually made her way in to his office and took a seat. After a little bit of small talk about her family and how the day was going, Mr. McCarthy zeroed in on the issue at hand. "I notice that you have been late to school every day for the past two weeks. Can you explain? Have you been going to therapy for your knee?"  
"No sir. I just can't get inspired for school," Grace stated, matter-of-factly.  
"Well, Grace!" Mr. McCarthy was taken aback.

Grace just shrugged. "Look, Mr. McCarty, the only thing I missed was study hall and I'm not failing anything so…"  
"You can't just not come to first period, no matter what the class. Understand?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Would you like to change your first period class?"

"No sir."

"Would you like to talk to a counselor?"  
"No sir. Can I go?"  
"Yeah. You can go. I don't want to see your name on another truancy report, understood?"

"Yes sir."

Mr. McCarthy waited about three minutes and then dialed Danny's number.

"Which one did what?" Danny groaned as he answered his cell.

"Hey Danny," Mr. McCarthy laughed. "You got a minute?"  
"Sure. What's up?"  
"I just pulled truancy reports. Did you know that your daughter has been late for school every day for the past ten days?"

"What? What about the boys?"  
"No. They have been on time, but it seems Grace hasn't gotten here before 9:00am since we moved her out of swim. She's not going to rehab in the mornings is she?"

"No… she's just not handling the knee surgery very well."  
"Yeah, I grasped that. I tried to get her to talk to a counselor, but she refused, and then when I asked her why she was late every day, she just said she couldn't get inspired to come to school."

"Well don't you worry. I will make sure to inspire her when she gets home. She won't be late again."

"Thanks, Danny. Let me know if we can do anything to help."

Danny made sure he was off by the time the kids got home from school. He and Linda were sitting in the kitchen when they all came in. Sean was first. He ran in and straight to the refrigerator, followed closely by Jack, and finally Grace.

"Hey Dad, what are you doing home so early?" Jack asked, looking to Danny, who wasn't normally home until 5:30pm or 6:00pm.

"Got a call from Mr. McCarthy today." The three kids literally froze in their tracks, each trying to figure out who did what. "Boys, take your snacks upstairs for a minute and let us talk to your sister. Jack and Sean both sighed a big sigh of relief before grabbing their food and a juice box and running up the stairs.

"What?" Grace asked flatly as she took a sip from her bottle of water.

"Have a seat," Linda instructed. Grace slowly made her way over to the table and sat down.

"And lose the attitude," Danny instructed. "Mr. McCarthy says that for the past ten days, you haven't managed to get to school before 9:00am. You want to explain to us where you've been?"

"Nowhere. I've just been taking my time getting there. It's study hall, Dad, not med school. What can I possibly be missing?"

"Ella Grace! I don't care if Mr. Hannigan is painting the classroom. You are going to get your butt there at 8:00am every morning and watch him do it. Do you understand?" Grace rolled her eyes and nodded. "Can't hear you."

"Yes sir," she mumbled. "Can I go now?"

"No. I think it's time for some hard truth. I know you are bummed out about missing state and I know that surgery sucked, but, Sweetheart, GET OVER IT."

"Danny!" Linda looked shocked at his bluntness. Grace immediately crossed her arms and furrowed her brow as he continued.

"We didn't say anything about your sudden need to go goth, we've been more than patient as you've moped around this house, and your brothers have done everything for you but throw a massive party to perk you up. It's time for you to do something. STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF. I talked to Coach Mac and Dr. Phelps. You are good to start rehabbing as early as next week." Danny slid a membership card across the table.

"What's this?" Grace grumbled.

"Your ticket to the weight room and pool at the Wellness Center every morning before school."

"We work with the trainers over there," Linda smiled. "Dr. Phelps already has one assigned to you. His name is Wes and he will be expecting you first thing in the morning at 6:00am."

"Fantastic," Grace sighed sarcastically. "Can I go now? My knee hurts."

Linda looked to Danny and then back to Grace. "Yeah. Go lay down. I'll bring you some ice and you can rest until dinner."

Grace was pretty much silent throughout dinner. Seeing that she was not up for discussion, Jack and Sean picked up the slack, talking about their basketball teams, the art fair, and the upcoming box car derby.

"Hey Sassy!" Sean smiled, trying to get Grace's attention.

"Yeah?"

"Will you help me with my art project?"

"Sure."

"Has everyone finished tonight's homework?" Linda asked as she began to clear the table. The kids all nodded. "You want to play a board game?" Sean was quick to agree, Jack was willing if it would make his mom happy, and Grace looked like she'd rather go through seven hours of dental surgery.

"I really need to go work on my term paper…"

"Isn't that what study hall is for?" Danny asked pointedly.

"It's ok, Grace," Linda said as she elbowed Danny in the gut. "Go work on your paper."

"Thanks, Mom."

After an hour of Clue (in which Danny dominated every single time), an hour of dance party karaoke, and lots of chocolate chip brownies, the Reagans finally decided to call it a night. Danny sent the boys up to get ready for bed as he and Linda cleaned up the mess, then headed up themselves to check on Grace. They found her, kicked back on her bed, laptop beside her, sound asleep.

Danny closed her laptop and gathered up her book, pens, and notebook, and sat them all on her desk as Linda pulled the fuzzy quilt up over her shoulders. "Good night, Grace," she whispered as she kissed the side of her head.

"Night Gracie," Danny also whispered as he did the same before turning off the lamp.

The following morning, Linda was up at 5:15am and went down to wake Grace so that she could drop her by the Wellness Center at 6:00am. Waking a sleeping Grace was like waking a sleeping bear, especially at 5:15am to go do something she clearly did not want to do. "Go get your daughter up," Linda said, exasperated as she walked through their bedroom and into the bathroom to put on her makeup. "We've got to leave in thirty minutes." Danny sat up in the bed and rubbed his own eyes. It was awfully early. He stumbled down the hallway and into Grace's room where he found her, still fast asleep with her head buried underneath her pillow.

"Ella Grace, wakie wakie." He sat down on the bed beside her and patted her back.

"Dad, go away."

"No ma'am. You've got to go to rehab. Get up. You've got twenty-eight minutes to get ready, pack clothes for school, and eat breakfast."

"I can't."  
"Yes you can. You just don't want to. Come on." Much to her annoyance, he pulled back the covers and attempted to pull her up. "You're not going to get better if you keep doing the same thing. And you aren't going to win state next year sleeping in every morning. Let's go."

"Daaaaad!"

"Up. Now. Let's go. Twenty-six minutes."

It wasn't a fun ride, but Linda did get Grace to the Wellness Center by 6:00am. "Mom, I can go in by myself."

"I know you can," Linda said as she got out of the car and followed her. "I just want to make sure you actually do." Grace huffed and puffed her way inside as Linda hurried in and found Wes. "Dr. Wes!"

"Nurse Linda!" he smiled as he walked over and shook hands with her. "How in the world are you?"  
"Good. Real good. This is my daughter, Grace."

"Hello, Grace," he smiled. "I had no idea you were my favorite nurse's daughter. Ready to get that knee back in shape?"

"Sure."

"Great! Grab a bike. Let's start there."

"Have fun," Linda smiled as Grace looked at her like she'd just dropped her off at an orphanage. "Daddy will be by to get you at 7:15am."

After fifteen minutes of cycling, fifteen minutes of weight training, and thirty minutes in the pool, Wes finally declared the first session complete. He, of course, still had enough energy to go and run a marathon. Grace didn't think she could walk to the parking lot. She did manage to eventually limp her way out to Danny's Jeep, vowing each step of the way to never come back.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Danny asked as she got into the passenger's seat.

"Fine," Grace grumbled. "Can I go home? My knee hurts."

"Uh… no."

"I think it's swollen."

"Probably is. You haven't used it in weeks." Danny poked around on it until Grace slapped his hand away. "Get Mac to look at it when you get to school."

"Hey Sassy," Sean began, leaning up between the seats, "Can we do my death mask this weekend?"

"Yeah, bud."

"Death mask?" Danny asked. "What's that about?"

"I have to do a death mask for my ancient Egypt history project. Sassy's going to help me with it. Can you get me some newspapers?"

"Sure. Why do you need newspapers?"

"It's paper…" Sean thought hard trying to think of the word. "Paper…"

"Paper mache," Grace finished as she flipped down the mirror on the sun visor and started putting on her makeup.

"Can we start tonight?"  
"Yeah."

"So, no plans this weekend?" Danny asked, confused.

"No sir."

"Jack?"

"Going camping with Tyler and Carter. Cleared it with Mom on Wednesday."

"Do I know Carter's parents?"

"Mom does."

"All right. Here we are," Danny sighed as he pulled up in front of the school, "All Reagans under the age of seventeen, out of the car. Mom will pick you up after school."

"Bye Dad!" Sean waved as he jumped out of the backseat.

"See you tomorrow, Dad!" Jack yelled as he bolted away from the car so that he wouldn't have to answer any more questions about his trip.

Grace finished applying mascara as Danny looked on. "You know you don't need all that? You look beautiful without it."

"You have to say that. You're my dad."

"And I'm right."

"I think I'll risk getting a second opinion from the boys inside," Grace rolled her eyes.

"Hey," Danny said as he grabbed her sleeve and pulled her back over to him, "leave the boys alone and try to learn something." He kissed her forehead. "Have a good day."

"Bye Daddy."

The first week of rehab proved to be a bit rocky, with Grace insisting every day that she was never going back and Wes was trying to kill her, but after the initial soreness wore off and she began to trust that she would get back in racing form, there was no stopping her. Danny and Linda welcomed the change with open arms. Their once happy-go-lucky Grace had returned... for how long was yet to be determined because things were about to get crazy.


	10. Chapter 10

The Reagans had soon all but forgotten about Carter Burke and they all hoped he'd forgotten about Grace. However, one Tuesday afternoon, Connor Burke made his way into the office of St. Mary's and asked Mrs. Appleby if he could see his cousin, Grace.

"Can I have your name, please?"

"Connor Burke." Ever the cool cucumber, Mrs. Appleby pulled up Grace's file and told Connor that she regretted to inform him, but he wasn't on Grace's contact list so she couldn't grant him access. "But her dad's in the car…"

"Well, if he wants to come in and add you, I'll be glad to have you added to the list…"

Connor began to squirm. "It's ok. Will you just make sure that she gets this envelope? It's got my new cellphone number in it so we can catch up this weekend."  
"Ok," Mrs. Appleby smiled. "Sorry about that." No sooner had Connor walked out the door, than Mrs. Appleby was quickly making her way to Mr. McCarthy's office. "Sir, we need to call Danny Reagan immediately. One of the members of the Burke family just showed up and wanted to see Grace."

"Who's that?"

"I have no idea, but Detective Reagan said if they ever requested access to Grace or the boys we needed to contact him immediately."

"Close the door," Mr. McCarthy directed as he turned on the speaker phone and dialed Danny's number.

"Reagan?"  
"Danny. Hey. It's Dave."

"Are you kidding me?! What have they done now?!"

"No, Danny. It's not like that. Mrs. Appleby is here with me. Apparently a gentleman named Connor Burke just came by and requested to see Grace and she said it was urgent that we call you."

"Where is he now?"

"He just left."

"I'll be right there," Danny said as he did a complete 180 degree turn in his car and headed in the direction of St. Mary's.

Baez looked at him like he'd lost his mind as she held on for dear life. "Whoa! Reagan, what is it?"  
"The Burkes are after Grace."

Danny pulled right up to the front door of St. Mary's and sprinted inside. "Hey Detective," Mrs. Appleby smiled. "He left this for Grace." Danny ripped open the envelope and read the letter.

"Does Grace know?"

"No. I told him that he wasn't on her contact list so I couldn't give him access. He said her 'dad' was out in the car and I just pretended I didn't know that wasn't you. I told him he could come in and add him to the list so that Connor could see him, but he backed down and just asked me to give her the envelope. That's when I called you."

"Good work."

"What's going on?" Mr. McCarthy asked. "Who are these guys?"

"I think we need to have a conversation," Danny sighed as Mr. McCarthy led he and Baez back into his office and poured them each a cup of coffee. Danny laid out the entire story from start to finish. Mr. McCarthy assured him that he would be extra vigilant and would make sure Grace didn't go off on her own. "I think I'll go ahead and get them for the day, if that's ok. I don't want them out in public without me there."

"I don't blame you," Mr. McCarthy said as he picked up the phone and buzzed Mrs. Appleby. "Hey, can you call the Reagan kids to come and check out, please?" Danny and Baez shook Mr. McCarthy's hand as they both stood to leave. "Let me know what else I can do for you, Danny."

"Thanks, Dave."  
"Hey, what's going on?" Jack asked as he and Sean met Grace in the hallway and the three of them headed to the office.

"Beats me, but it can't be good."  
"Hey!" Danny smiled as he put an arm around Grace and held her tightly.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"Nothing. I just thought I'd spring you guys early today."  
Grace looked up at him skeptically. "No seriously. Who's hurt?"

"Nobody. Come on." He started to walk out, with Grace still not convinced.  
"You know I was supposed to have a Latin test today…"

"Then don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Danny chuckled. "Let's go. I'm in the mood for hot chocolate and donuts. Say hello to Detective Baez."

"Hey guys," she smiled as all the kids greeted her on their way out the door.

As promised, Danny took the kids for hot chocolate and doughnuts after dropping Baez back at the precinct. Jack and Sean picked out their favorites and ran to find a booth while Danny and Grace got the hot chocolate. "Dad, straight up, you've never sprung me from school. What's up?"

"Can't we just enjoy an afternoon with your brothers?"

"Fine. Don't tell me. I'll figure it out eventually."

"I'm sure you will," Danny laughed.

Once they finished in the Doughnut Dive, Danny took the kids home. The boys immediately went upstairs for an afternoon of video games. Grace lingered, as she dropped her backpack at the door, and stood with arms crossed, awaiting an explanation.

"What?" Danny asked as he looked through the cupboard, trying to decide what he wanted to lay out for supper.

Grace squinted her eyes. "Can I borrow your phone for a minute. I need to ask Grandpa a question."

"He's working."

"It will just take a minute."

Danny returned the exact same squint as he handed his phone to Grace. She hit the speed dial for Frank and waited two rings before that familiar voice answered.

"Hello Detective."

"It's me, Grandpa."

"Oh. Hello Granddaughter. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"What's the top three Reagan offenses? Hang on, let me put you on speaker first."

"What?"

"Top three Reagan offenses. Go."

Danny turned and put his hands on his hips. "Lying, disobedience, and disrespect."

"Thank you, Grandpa. That's all. Love you." Grace ended the call and tossed it back to Danny.

"What was that?"

"You heard Grandpa. Reagan Rule #1, Dad. No lying. Now tell me why you sprung me and the boys from school and you brought us home and then you didn't go back to work. It had to be something big for all three of those things to happen because let's face it, that has NEVER happened."

Danny took a deep breath. "Ok. Have a seat. Let's talk." Grace took a seat at the kitchen table opposite her dad. "Connor Burke came to school this morning to see you."

"Connor? Who's that?"

"Carter's nephew. We were told Carter was in the parking lot. Connor came in asking to speak with you."

"What'd he want?"  
"He wanted to see you, but thankfully, Mrs. Appleby didn't grant access. He left a note with contact information."

"So, let's call him."  
"What?"

"Let's call him. I'm not hiding out forever. Let's meet and get this over with."  
"Absolutely not."

"But Dad, I.."

"No." Danny got up. "End of discussion."

"But…"

"Grace. I'm not kidding. This is serious. Don't you dare get anywhere near this." Grace dropped it for the moment. She was already working a plan in her head but would definitely need help, so she did an about face and went to find Jack. "Grace Reagan! Don't do anything stupid!"

"Seany, I need Jackers for a few minutes."

"Take him. He's beating me anyway."

Jack got up and followed Grace across the hall to her room. "What's up?"

"I need you to call Uncle Jamie and ask a few questions."  
"Why don't you call?"  
"Because he'll tell Dad and Dad will flip."

"What's the question?"  
"I need to know exactly what Carter Burke would have to do to violate his parole and get him put back in prison."  
"So you want me to ask him that?"  
"No. Just nose around a bit. Tell him you have a buddy whose brother got arrested on spring break and he got bailed out and you want to know how that works. Then ask about parole. Then ask what somebody who committed murder would have to do to violate their parole."

"Do I even want to know why you need to know all this?"

"Nah. Just find out for me."

"Ok," Jack shrugged.

It took a couple of days, but he did eventually manage to corner Jamie when he stopped by one evening to talk shop with Danny. Linda had convinced him to stay for dinner, so of course each one of the kids needed their little bit of Uncle Jamie time. Sean was up first and wanted nothing more than one game of Army Attacks on his gaming system. Shortly after dinner, Jack managed to steal Jamie away for some help on his homework, which in reality was the spy work that Grace had given him. "What about you, Grace? Any special requests before I go home?" he asked as he made his way out of Jack's room.

"Nope. I'm good," Grace smiled as she walked him downstairs. "Unless of course you want to spring me from school tomorrow so we can go get tickets to the Pink concert in March?"

"Sorry. I'll be patrolling the mean streets of the city with Eddie tomorrow."  
"She can come too. And I'll bring Parker. And it will be the best looking double date that's ever hit the Garden."  
"You are insane," Jamie laughed. "Goodnight."

As soon as Grace had him out the door, she sprinted back upstairs to Jack's room. "What'd you find out?" she asked, without even a knock on the door. She just burst right through and plopped herself onto his bed. Jack stopped typing on his laptop and turned around to face her.

"How about… hey Jack, you know you are the best, smartest brother I have and I'm forever in your debt for doing my dirty work?"

Grace took a breath and glared at him. "Hey Jack, want me to sell you out to Mom and Dad before I get caught or after?"  
He chuckled. "Ok, ok. Truce. Here's what I know…"

Jack relayed all his findings to Grace. He could tell she was planning the entire time he was talking. When he finished, he was expecting her to fill him in and tell him what great work he'd done. Instead, Grace got up and jetted to her own room to finalize her plans with Millie, Hailey, and Taylor.

The following evening while the Reagans were having dinner, Grace brought up her request. "Hey, can I got to Hailey's house this weekend? We want to go to Stilton's."

"I don't see why not," Linda said.

"Is it just the girls or will there be boys there?" Danny asked without even looking up from his plate.

"Just us, Dad. No need to call in backup. It's just me, Millie, Taylor, and Hales... unless of course you prefer we take the boys for protection and in that case, I'm sure Parker and his friends will be glad to join us." Danny looked less than amused. "Just us. Can I go? Please?"

"Sure. But I want a text when you get there and when you get home."

The girls successfully managed to get out of Hailey's house without too many questions from her mom. "So where's this club?" Taylor asked as they girls hopped on the subway and headed into the city.

"Right in the middle of town."

"Have you heard from Connor?"

"Yeah... he said they were there already."

"Nervous?" Millie asked.

"Sorta. What about you guys?"

"We got this," Taylor assured them. "We have a plan. We go in together. We get the picture. We get out of there."

Grace contemplated aborting the mission all the way there. In the back of her mind, all she could think of was her Dad, Grandpa, Pop, and Uncle Jamie going ballastic when they found out she'd put herself in danger. When they finally made it to their stop, they all got off and walked toward the club. With one last reassuring glance at her buddies, Grace took a deep breath and waved at Connor who was standing outside the front door waiting on them. "Ok. Let's do this."


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks for reading! I try not to ever read reviews, because the flamers make me sad, so I'm sorry that I haven't responded to all of you kind people that left such nice words. I did break my norm and read these reviews and really appreciate your encouragement. I had never planned on having Grace kidnapped because this really wasn't that... it was just going to be a funny story between her and Danny, but since someone had asked, I figured I'd give it a go. The next few updates may take a while because I hadn't planned on a kidnapping, so the chapters I had already written will have to wait a while until I get Grace out of this mess. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy!**

Shortly before 8:00pm, the girls hurried off of the subway and quickly made their way over to Danny's precinct. "You guys want to run for the hills?" Grace asked as they walked up to the front door of the 5-4. "Cause once we go in there, Danny Reagan is probably going to start breathing fire and may kick our perfectly perky butts all the way back to Staten Island. I don't blame you if you want to run."

"Gracer!" Hailey interrupted, "We're in. We're all in. Let's go."

Grace led the way upstairs and into the Major Cases Squad Room. "Grace?" Detective Baez asked as she filled up her coffee cup.

"Hey!" Grace smiled nervously. "Is my dad still here?"

"Yeah. He was just talking to the boss. I'll go get him."

"Thanks."

Baez quickly made her way back to the desk where Danny was just finishing up. "Hey Reagan, Grace is here."

"Grace? Grace who?"

"Uh… Grace Reagan… I think you've met," Baez chuckled, sarcastically.

"My Grace? What in the world is she doing here?"

"Don't know, but she's here with her buddies. Why don't you go ask?"

Danny looked down the hallway and saw Grace, Hailey, Taylor and Millie waving proudly. He quickly made his way down to where they were. "Grace. What's going on?"

"We need to tell you something. We actually have good news but I need you to promise not to get mad."

"Not promising anything when my sixteen-year-old daughter and her three friends are in my precinct. Wait, does your mother know where you are?"

"Not exactly."

"Ok. Where does your mother think you are?"

"With Hales. And technically I am with her."

"Hailey Stabler. Where does your mother technically think the four of you are?"

"Ummmm….." Hailey looked to Grace. "Dinner?"

"Dinner **where**?"

The girls all exchanged a glance. "Uh… Stilton's?"

"Stilton's?! Isn't that in Staten Island?! Let's go!"

He grabbed Grace and Hailey by the arm and nodded at the other two to follow as he drug them into the box. "Start talking. **Now**."

"Daddy, before you get mad…"

"Already there, Grace…"

"Wait. Before you get mad, what would you say if I told you we had evidence to put Carter Burke behind bars again?"

As soon as Grace said Carter's name, Danny ears immediately perked. He narrowed his eyes, lowered his voice, and looked straight at her. "What did you say?"

"What would you say if I told you the four of us had evidence you could use to put Carter Burke away for good?" Grace smiled broadly, very proud of herself. "Because we do. We have evidence…" Danny took a deep breath. He had a feeling his blood pressure was about to get a whole lot higher.

"What do you mean you have evidence? Where exactly have the four of you been tonight?"

"Wait," Millie interrupted. "Can we get immunity first? Grace said you're liable to kill us. I want assurance we will live to see graduation."

"Yeah," Taylor added. "I have a date with Shawn Miller next weekend. Promise you are going to let me live long enough to go on that date."

"Right now, I suggest you tell me absolutely everything the four of you have been up to before you never see the light of day again."

"Dad, can you at least be calm and rational while we explain?"

"Start talking, Grace."

"Well, it all started when I called Connor Burke and he asked me to go to Romanelli's for a sit down with Carter." Danny about hit the roof. He couldn't decide if he wanted to kill the four of them now or later.

"WHAT?!"

"Dad…"

"Sorry. Continue. When was this?"

"A couple of days ago."

"Did you go?"

"No, I didn't go. Are you crazy? I was afraid they'd knock me off."

"Well, you do actually have more sense than I thought. So what happened?"

"I told Connor I wasn't allowed any contact with Carter and I didn't want to jam him up. So I'd have to do all communication through him. For a mob guy he's pretty dumb because it only took me about two days to win his trust. Tonight, he invited us to the soft opening of Ping, their new ping pong club and guess what we got on video…"

Millie pulled out her cellphone and held up the video to Danny's face. At first glance, it looked like the girls were just goofing off for the camera, but upon closer inspection, Carter Burke could be seen in the background, less than 20 feet away from Grace and clearly buying a weapon which one could only assume was stolen. "All violations of his parole, Detective Reagan," Taylor smiled. "Need me to send you this as Exhibit A?"

Danny took a moment to pace around the room, then took a deep breath before opening the door. "I'll be back. Don't move." He walked out to where Baez was sitting at the desk. "We talk for a minute?"

"Huh?" Danny turned on his heels and headed into the locker room as Baez hurried in behind him. "What is going on?"

It took a few minutes for Danny to get his temper under control enough to explain everything to his partner. "OK, Reagan. I know you are mad, but they are just sixteen and they think they did a good thing."

"Are you kidding me?! This may be the DUMBEST thing the four of them have ever done."

"Reagan, calm down. They're all safe for now let's just be thankful for that. We need to make a plan of how to keep them safe though now that they have established connection with the Burkes. Have you talked to Linda?"

"Not yet. I had to get out of there before I punched a hole through the wall."

"Let's think for a minute. I'm pretty sure you have scared the friends enough that they won't pursue this anymore and the Burkes shouldn't go after them considering they aren't who they want. Grace, on the other hand…"

"I've got to call Dad. This has disaster written all over it."

"First, get the other girls home. Don't go off on Grace in public."

Meanwhile, back in the squad room, everyone but Grace was feeling really good about their current situation. "Think we'll get a medal?" Hailey asked. "I wouldn't mind getting some bling from your grandpa, Gracer."

Taylor considered it for a minute. "I don't think they'd give a civilian a medal, but I bet we'd at least make the news. Heck, this may be my big break! Some producer may see my interview and immediately realize that I was born with a face for the camera. Anybody got extra lip gloss?"

"Wait. What if there's a reward?" Millie squealed. "I mean, if we send a bad guy to jail, there has to be a reward, right? $25,000 split four ways is a lot of money!"

"What do you think, Gracie?"

"From the look on my dad's face, I'd say we don't have to worry about any of that. We'll be lucky to make it out of this precinct alive."

"Uh oh. You think he's mad?"

"I don't think he walked out of here to call a press conference in our honor. He's pissed."

Danny made his way back to four, solemn, somewhat repentant teenagers after calling all of their parents to come and pick them up. Once they arrived, Danny led them in where all four girls sat with eyes wider than half dollars.

"Uh oh," Taylor gulped.

"Hey," Hailey smiled. "Did Detective Reagan call you guys for our press conference?"

"Zip it," Mr. Stabler frowned. "Why are the four of you not at dinner? This is a long way from Stilton's."

"Well…"

"It's my fault, Mr. Stabler," Grace sighed. "I begged them to help me out with something. I'm sorry."

Danny looked at Grace and then back to the parents. "Here's the thing. The girls stumbled on to a known felon violating his parole. I'm not sure if we'll be able to use their evidence to get him locked back up, but either way, we need them all to lay low."

The parents had no problem agreeing with that. They all agreed there would be weeks of grounding to follow before escorting the sad group of girls out to their cars. "Dad, how mad are you?" Grace asked as they all exited and left her alone with Danny who was standing in front of her with hands on his hips.

"Not now, Grace. Let me get my stuff and we will continue this conversation at home."

"But like if you had to rate your anger from one, being the time I stuck Jack's head in the toilet, to ten being the time you caught me and Hailey drinking that bottle of wine in the tree house… what would it be right now?"

Danny took a deep breath. "Forty-two. Let's go. Now."

Grace didn't say anything else as she followed Danny to the Jeep. As soon as they got in, he dialed Frank's number and put him on speaker. "Hey Dad, got a minute?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Well, Grace and her friends just showed up at the precinct."

"Were they in trouble?"

"They are now. Apparently she has been communicating with Connor Burke and tonight decided to sneak out with her friends and come into the city and go to a ping pong club where ALL of the Burkes were in attendance!"

"But she's with you now? She's safe?"

"I'm fine, Grandpa," Grace sighed.

"Ella Grace, why in the world would you do something so foolish?"

"I thought I could help. We got Carter on video buying a gun."

"WHAT? Where are you headed now?"

"Home. Want to come over? I could really use your help in figuring out how we're going to keep your granddaughter safe."

"I'll be there in half an hour."

Grace jumped out of the Jeep before Danny even got it fully in park and high tailed it into the house. "Hey, what are you doing home?" Linda asked. "I thought you were spending the night with Hailey."

"Nope. I'm going to bed. Goodnight." Grace jumped on the stair case and got about four steps up before Danny came through the door.

"Get your butt back down here, young lady!" Danny directed, pointing to the sofa. "Get on that couch and do not move until your grandfather gets here."

Grace turned around and glared at Danny. "What? Am I getting a time-out?"  
"Frank's coming?" Linda asked as Danny and Grace glared at each other.

"NOW," Danny demanded through gritted teeth.

Linda was still utterly confused as Grace stomped down the stairs and sat angrily on the couch. "Hey! Can one of you please tell me what is going on? Why are you not at Hailey's? And why is Frank coming? And what has she done to make you so mad?"

"Let's wait on Dad so we only have to go through this once."

Frank was less than jolly when he arrived, but softened for a moment when Linda opened the door. "Hey Frank," he smiled as he gave her a hug before making his way over to the couch where Grace was slumped down, sullen, and Danny was pacing in front of the fireplace.

"Where are the boys?"

"Both staying with friends tonight," Linda followed as he took a seat in the rocking chair across from Grace and Linda took a seat beside her. "We were supposed to have date night until these two came in together, madder than two wet hens, and they won't tell me why. And now that you're here, I'm thinking it's something big. What happened?"

"Start from the beginning, Grace. Go ahead and tell your mom and your grandpa what exactly you have been up to tonight," Danny growled.

Grace recapped the evening as Danny got madder and madder. Linda sat back in disbelief. Frank leaned forward in quiet contemplation. After explaining herself, Linda freaking out over the danger, and Danny yelling about the stupid choices, Frank silenced the crowd with a wave of his hand. What once had looked like a promising evening for Grace had quickly turned into one big disappointing day of trouble.

"Ella Grace, where do you stand now with the Burkes?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how did you leave them? Do they know you videoed Carter?"

Grace thought for a minute. "I don't think so. Connor was cool when we left. I told him we had to get back to Staten Island before Hailey's parents realized we were missing and he seemed to understand."

"How much information on yourself have you given them? Do they know where you live?"

"I don't think so."

"Do they know who you are?"

Grace hesitated. "Yes sir," she answered softly. "That's how it all started. I agreed to a meeting with Connor and during our conversation I told him I'd reconnect with Carter if they would promise we could do everything on my terms… which meant they had to leave my family alone."

"Oh Grace!" Linda gasped, immediately fearing for her daughter's safety.

"It was going to happen sooner or later," Grace tried to explain. "I just wanted to make sure I got out in front of it. And if I succeed in getting Carter to ask me for a meeting, he'll break the restraining order. And getting him on video buying a stolen gun was just the cherry on top. Isn't that breaking his parole or something?"

"Grace, there are certain ways that the law works. Just because you've heard us talk about police stings doesn't mean you are ready to conduct your own. You are so lucky that you and your friends got out alive tonight. The Burkes could've taken you out and taken out the three of them just so there wouldn't be any witnesses. Do you get that?"

"I do now."

"Well, I think it goes without saying, Grace, you are under strict house arrest. There will be absolutely no leaving the house without an escort. I will drop you off with Pop every morning and you can do your school work there until I come and pick you up in the afternoons."

"I can't even go to school?"

"No, Grace. You can't."

"For how long?"

"Until it's safe."

"How long will that be?"

"Not sure, but I can assure you, not anytime soon."

"This sucks," Grace muttered.

"Excuse me?" Danny asked, as his eyebrows shot up and he threw his hands on his hips.

"I said this sucks! I just tried to help out. I didn't go into this blind. I actually did my homework. I found out what would cause him to break his parole. I didn't go alone. I did it as safe as humanly possible and I came to you right after with all the evidence. Now you're mad at me and I'm in trouble again? This sucks!"

"When are you going to get it through your thick, Reagan head that this isn't about you helping or even about you being in trouble. This is about you being SAFE and not getting kidnapped or murdered by a psychotic crime family."

"If Uncle Jamie had done this, you'd give him a medal."

"Uncle Jamie is a cop!"

"And I'm a grown tail woman and the reason that this is even a case to begin with!"  
"You are a child, Grace! You are my child and it is my job to protect you, but it's getting really hard to do that when you continually put yourself in the most dangerous situations possible." Linda looked to Frank for help as Danny and Grace glared at each other. The room fell silent, but you could still cut the tension with a knife.

"Ella Grace," Frank began, "this has nothing to do with whether or not you are still a child. As your dad has said many times tonight, this has always been and will always be about your safety, because keeping you safe is our first priority. You being under house arrest is not entirely just because you disobeyed yet again and put yourself in danger, even though that is a big part of it. It is absolutely for your safety. Now that you have reached out to the Burkes, they could be tracking you and your friends. You have no idea what men like that are capable of. Your dad and I do and that is what scares us to death each time you go off the grid or have contact with this guy. Do you understand that?"  
"Yes, Grandpa."

"Now, we are going to get this guy, but you have to trust us and let us handle it and **stop** doing things that put you and everyone else in danger."

There was no way Grace was going to win this one, especially with Frank, so she finally conceded, accepted her punishment, and apologized to everyone. She wasn't happy when she stomped upstairs, but as Danny so eloquently put it, "She may be mad but at least she ain't dead." Frank stayed around for one cup of coffee and some debriefing with Danny before finally deciding to call it a night.

Linda sighed as she got in bed, after taking a long, hot shower and then checking on Grace for the night.

"How's the jailbird? Still in her room?" Danny asked as he tossed his phone on the nightstand and pulled back the covers for his wife to crawl in beside him.

"Yes. She feels bad. She's still mad, but she does feel bad."

"She should feel bad. She did a really stupid thing tonight that could've gotten her and her friends killed."

"Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about how we're going to keep her and the boys safe."

"I'm working on it. In the meantime, she is not allowed to leave this house. I don't want her stepping one foot outside this door without one of us, preferably me because I'm always packing."

"Whatever you say, Detective." She snuggled up next to Danny as he wrapped his left arm around her. "I do need the two of you to spend the day together tomorrow though."

"Why is that?"  
"Because you have the day off."

"I did before your daughter opened a can of worms."

"She did do that, which is why you need to spend the day with her. I don't care what the two of you do, just fix the dark cloud that is hanging over this house. Is Jamie off tomorrow?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"You could both use him as a buffer."

Danny laid there for a moment running different options through his head before eventually cracking up.

"What?"  
"Grown tail woman. You know she sounded just like you when she said that."

Linda chuckled. "Well she may've sounded just like me, but she definitely got the glare from you… and the sass."

"You know what it made me think of?"  
"What?"

"The time Grace and Jack nearly burned down the house."

"Excuse me? When did they nearly burn down the house."

"When you were in the hospital after having Sean. I was inside cooking supper and just happened to glance out back to check on the kids and Grace and Jack had built a huge campfire and were roasting marshmallows…"

"What?!"

"I never told you that?" Danny asked, clearly having spilled the beans.

"No!"

"Oh yeah. They had a huge blaze going right outside the door and were happily roasting their marshmallows like it was completely normal."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. It scared me to death. She couldn't have been what… six? And Jack was only four. How they were able to build a fire that big is beyond me."

"What did you do?"

"I grabbed the fire extinguisher and emptied the can, much to their dismay. Then I spanked both of them and sent them upstairs. Grace got about three steps up before she turned around, threw her hands in the air, and said, 'I was just trying to feed YOUR son'."

Linda laughed. "Sounds about right. Do you know what it reminded me of?"

"What?"

"That time when Grace was about four and I thought it'd be a good idea to try time-outs and I came home to find you in a stand-off."

"All she had to do was sit there for four minutes and be quiet. However, that mouth kept her on the couch for an hour and a half. We never did finish that time-out…"

The following morning Grace clumped down the hall in search of coffee. She glanced in Danny and Linda's room to find them both still in bed. After fixing a big cup of half hot chocolate, half coffee, Grace headed right back upstairs to her room, only this time when she passed, Danny and Linda were both awake.

"Good morning," Linda smiled.

"Hey," Grace whispered as she lingered in the doorway. "Can we go shopping today? I need new shoes."

"I wish we could, but I have to be at work at 11:00am. You're spending the day with Daddy." Grace gave her the most pathetic look she could muster. "You'll be fine," Linda assured her.

"Of course she'll be fine," Danny stretched as he rolled over and sat up in the bed. "Come here, Ella Grace."

"I can't. I'm still mad at you," Grace stated matter-of-factly.

"Well I'm still mad at you too, but get your butt over here anyway," he dead-panned.

Linda chuckled at the two of them. They were ridiculous. They both shared the same glare before Grace eventually caved in and sat her coffee down on the dresser and walked over and climbed up on the bed, wedging herself between the two of them. "I'm more mad at you than you are at me."

"Not possible."

"Are you two kidding me?" Linda asked, clearly having had enough of their antics. "If you two don't make up right now, I am going to make you both go and visit my sister this weekend… without me. Do you understand?"

Danny and Grace both exchanged terrified and then smiled before giving each other a hug.

"Sorry, Daddy."  
"Sorry, Gracie."

"Good," Linda said as she got up and put on her robe. "Now both of you get downstairs and let's cook some breakfast before I have to go to work."

Danny got up, put his robe on, and started to walk out behind Linda, but not before Grace jumped off the bed and onto his back.

"Mama!" he yelled. "I just got attacked by a big sack of potatoes." Grace hung on for dear life as he spun around in circles until they both died out laughing.

Linda left shortly after 10:00am, feeling much better about the state of Reagan World. As she did every morning, she gave both Danny and Grace a hug and a kiss and told them she'd see them after work.

"So, what are we doing today?" Grace asked.  
"Well, I need to buy groceries and you need to go with me."

Grace was less than excited, but it sure beat having to sit at home all day, so after they cleaned up the kitchen and got dressed, they headed to the grocery store. "I'll go get the cold stuff and you get the dry stuff and we'll meet at the produce."

"No ma'am. You stay with me."

"Dad, I'm…"

"I know. A grown tail woman, but you're going to be a grown tail woman that stays with her Dad today."

Grace didn't even fight it. What could've been a thirty-minute trip ended up being an hour. The good thing about shopping with Danny though was that Grace could pretty much get anything she wanted, thus why they ended up with gummy worms, gumballs, and chocolate pretzels. "Hey Dad, what about some fro-yo?" She could tell he was distracted as he kept looking behind her. "Dad. Dad!"

"Huh?"

"Fro-yo. Can we get some?"

"Uh, sure. Come on, let's get going."  
Grace looked at him strangely. Clearly something had him spooked. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Let's go. Hurry up."

They got home and unloaded the car. Danny was putting away the cold items as Grace headed toward the front door. "Where are you going?"

"Gummy worms. I'll be right back!" Before Danny could say anything, Grace was out the door and across the yard. Unbeknownst to both of them, when she reached into the passenger's side of the Jeep, a hand immediately clasped over her mouth and she felt a gun to her back.

"Don't scream. Don't struggle. Come with me and you won't get hurt. If you make a scene, we'll shoot Detective Reagan before he can even turn around. Got it." Grace's eyes went wide as she nodded her head.

"Hey Grace!" she heard someone yell behind her before being whisked into the SUV that was sitting in the driveway next door. Clearly they had been seen by someone which did make her feel a little bit better.

"Connor?"  
"Hello Grace."

"What the… what is going on?"  
"You cut me off and your dad wants to see you."

"This is kidnapping. Let me go!"

"All you had to do was meet with him, but you didn't. This had to happen."

"You know my dad is a cop. Why do this? There are 35,000 men at his disposal."

"Grace, there's the written law… and then there's street law."

When Grace wasn't back in the house in two minutes, Danny went out looking. When he found the door open, gummy worms still inside, and Grace nowhere in sight, he began to panic. "Grace! Grace Reagan!" He didn't really need confirmation to know that something had happened. His gut was screaming it. About that time, he saw Millie pop out from behind a tree and run full speed in his direction.

"Detective Reagan! Detective Reagan!"

"What is it Millie?"

"Some big guy just grabbed Grace and put her in the back of an SUV."

"Wh-what?" It took his breath. Literally in that one sentence, Danny's worst nightmare had come true.

"It was a big, white guy with a black hoodie and dark jeans. The SUV was black, kinda like the Commissioner's."

"Which way did it go?"

"They took off that way," she said, pointing up the street.

"Go home and stay there," Danny instructed as he ran inside, grabbed his keys, and squealed off. He immediately dialed 911 to report a kidnapping and then Baez and Jamie and told them to get to his house. The next call went to his Dad, who was tasked with swinging by to pick up Linda. Unfortunately, it was like the SUV carrying Grace had disappeared. There were a thousand directions it could go, and Danny didn't have a clue which way to even consider. When he ran out of options, he returned home to make a plan with everyone who had assembled.

Linda was understandably a basket case and ran straight into Danny's arms when he got home.

"Dad, has anybody seen her?"  
"Not yet. We've issued an Amber Alert and have all patrol cars on the lookout."  
"Eddie and I are going to head to Ping and the other known addresses," Jamie said. "I'll call you from there."

"Careful," Pop warned as they hurried to their patrol car.

Danny looked to Frank, completely devastated. "Come on. Let's go inside and get to work and bring our Grace home."


	12. Chapter 12

**Fair Warning: As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't really planning on a whole kidnapping thing when I started this story, so the rating was relatively light; however, this chapter contains references to sexual assault. It's not graphic by any means, but it does reference it, and there is some mild language, so please be warned. Also, as my profile pic would suggest, I'm not from New York, so there's a really good possibility my directional language may be off. :) Enjoy!**

Connor's driver had already sped into a garage at an abandoned warehouse when Jamie and Eddie made it to Manhattan. "Come on. It's time to get out."

"Wait," Grace said, grabbing his wrist. "Promise me I won't get hurt and neither will my family."

"We wouldn't hurt you. **We** are your family. Let's go." Grace, Connor, the guy that had grabbed her, and the driver all got out and made their way inside, where there was a crowd of guys and one woman, standing in a circle, talking. They fell silent as all eyes went to Grace.

"Mary Elizabeth!" Carter smiled as he opened his arms and started toward Grace.

Grace looked around. "Who's that?"  
He chuckled. "That's you. My daughter, and joint heir to the Burke family dynasty!"

"What do you want, Carter?"  
"I want to get to know you. I want you to move in with me and join the family business.

"No thank you," Grace said, point blankly. "I want to go home. To my real home with my real family. Not a bunch of mobsters who tried to murder me as a baby. I have no desire to spend my life in your jail or real jail."

"Well isn't she just a little spitfire?" the tall man named Toby smirked as he ran his index finger up Grace's arm. "Somebody needs to take a strong hand to you."

"You lay one hand on me and you'll be walking funny for the rest of your life." Grace turned back to Connor. "Take me home!"

"Look, I know it's a bit of a shock, but once you get to know us, you will see. This is the life you were meant for. No more Staten Island life for you with little brothers, high school drama and a family of cops. From now on, it's the best of the best. Booze, fur coats, and the high life, getting reacquainted with your daddy."

Grace looked at the crowd and then back to Carter. "Hell no."

Grace was always strong-willed, but even she was quite surprised by her sudden boldness. She should've been scared out of her mind, and probably was, but she wasn't about to let it show.

"I am your father! Period. You're staying with me."  
"YOU are NOT my father. My father is the guy that was there cheering for me at every single swim meet since I was four years old. My father was the guy that took me to get ice cream after Ty Camden dumped me in seventh grade for my arch nemesis Emily Rhodes. My father is the guy that sat up with me in the rocking chair all night when I had pneumonia and couldn't breathe. You? You shot the woman who gave birth to me and left me for dead on the street. You were nothing more than a sperm donor!" Before she could blink, Carter backhanded Grace as hard as he possibly could. She grabbed the side of her face as her eyes filled with tears. "I hate you."

"Maybe if we leave Grace to her thoughts, she'll come to her senses," Toby suggested, pushing Grace into a door that led to a basement, locking it behind her. "We'll see you in a little while."

Grace made her way down the steps and explored the basement. There really wasn't much to see, other than a half finished bathroom, an old cot in the corner, and a couple of folding chairs. Knowing she was going to be by herself for a while, Grace used the next hour to let her guard down. She cried until there was nothing left. All she could do was think about Danny, Linda, and the rest of the family. She knew they would be looking for her, but had no idea how she was going to get to them. Around 6:00pm, she heard someone open the door and come downstairs. She refused to look up from where she was laying on the cot.

"Hey," Connor said, "I brought you some dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"You need to eat. Your dad had to run out of town so he won't be back until tomorrow. It looks like you'll be staying here for the night."

"Connor, please. Let me go," Grace begged, her eyes damp with tears.

"I can't Grace, I'm sorry. He put the take out bags down on the table. I've got to go. Have a good night."

A few minutes after Connor left, Grace heard footsteps coming back down the stairs. Assuming it was Connor, she never looked up to see. She just assumed he was bringing more food or drinks. Before she knew it, someone was on top of her, holding her down and kissing her neck.

"OW! GET OFF!" Grace yelled as she kicked as hard as she could.

"Lay still," Toby said as he reached under her shirt.

"STOP IT!"

Grace's worst nightmare was coming true. It was one thing to be ripped from your family and forced to stay in a basement, but it was a whole other monster to get sexually assaulted by a greasy mobster. Had Danny Reagan know what was going on with his only daughter at that moment, he would've ripped Toby Carlo from limb to limb.

Just as Toby reached to unbutton Grace's shorts, Connor flew down the stairs and pulled him off of her. "What are you doing, Toby? She's not here for that."

"Dude, go away!"

"No. Get out of here. Nothing was supposed to happen to her. Grace, I'm sorry."

Grace ran into the bathroom and closed the door. There was no lock on it, but she sat up against the door and swore she'd never come out. Even if she had to die of starvation in that bathroom, she wasn't about to have anything else happen to her at the hands of these people. Connor ran off Toby and then tried unsuccessfully for a few minutes to get Grace to talk to him. When all efforts failed he left her alone and set up camp in the dingy basement. He could hear Grace crying for the next half an hour before she finally stopped.

Meanwhile, Frank had instructed Danny's family to once again move in with he and Pop, for the safety of the boys who were both devastated. None of the Reagans were handling the situation very well. Danny had refused to stop working, as had Jamie, Baez, and Eddie. All four of them vowed to not rest until they found Grace. Linda sat on Frank's couch, with tears streaming down her face as Erin sat beside her with one arm slung around her shoulders. "They will find her," Erin assured her. "If I know anything about my brothers it's that they won't rest until they get what they want."

Danny, Baez, Jamie and Eddie all stayed at the precinct overnight. They each took a turn getting about two hours of sleep while the others poured over every piece of information they had on the Burkes, trying to figure out where they'd stash Grace.

About 6:00am, Connor awoke to hear more sniffling from the bathroom. "Hey Grace, would you like some breakfast?" She didn't answer. He went out and picked up donuts and milk and returned a short time later. He knocked softly on the bathroom door. "Grace, it's Connor. I've got donuts and milk. Will you please come out and eat something? Grace?"

"I don't like milk," came the sad reply. "Will you please just let me call my dad? I won't tell him anything. I just want him to know that I'm ok. Please?"

Connor contemplated for a moment. He knew Carter would probably put a bullet in him if he let her, but he was still feeling guilty about Toby assaulting her, so he caved. "Come out and you can put it on speaker. But you have to be off in less than thirty seconds so it can't be traced."

Grace got up and slowly made her way out of the bathroom and sat down in the chair opposite Connor. She had a huge bruise on the side of her face where Carter had hit her and a large bruise on each arm where Toby had held her down. Connor put his cell on speaker and handed it to Grace to dial the number. "Remember, you better not say a word about where we are or you'll get moved and you won't like it."

Grace nodded. At this point, she would've walked through fire to talk to Danny. It took a few seconds, but she finally remembered his cellphone number. Not surprisingly, he answered after the first ring, thinking it was going to be some sort of ransom demand.

"Reagan?"

"Daddy?" Grace said, shaking.

"Grace," he sighed a big sigh of relief just hearing her voice. "How are you? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm ok. I only get thirty seconds. Tell Mom and I love her. And tell Jackers they don't have any tacos here." Connor's eyes were glued to the staircase. He knew if Carter came through that door and saw Grace on the phone, it wouldn't end well for either of them.

"Wrap it up," Connor whispered.

"Dad, if I don't make it home…"

"Don't talk like that. We're going to find you." Danny was about to lose it.

Connor motioned for the phone. "I've got to go. I love you."

"Love you too, baby. I'll see you soon."

As soon as Grace hung up the phone, Carter came through the door and clumped down the stairs. "Hey! Feel better today?" She stared at him with a blank expression. "Did Connor take care of you?"

"She hasn't had anything to eat," Connor said.

"Well, there are a couple of bottles of wine in that cabinet. Make sure you drink something. Come on, Connor. We've got stuff to do."

"What'd she say?" Baez asked as Danny ended the call and grabbed his coat.

"There's no tacos there."  
At that point, Baez thought he'd lost it. "What?"

"There's no tacos there. It's something we taught the kids in case they ever got in trouble. It means she's on the east side."

"You Reagans never cease to amaze me."

Danny updated everyone on the development and quickly made his way to the east side. He and Maria spent the morning canvasing the area and checking every known place with which the Burkes might have an association. Later that afternoon, the rest of the Reagans gathered after mass for family dinner. Grace's seat was glaringly empty, as was Danny's. He still hadn't come home, though Frank had called and insisted that he swing by for a quick bite to eat. When he did come in, he was worn and disheveled, with a blank look on his face. He was clearly running on fumes, as was Jamie.

"Any word on Sassy, Dad?" Jack's eyes searched his face for answers.

"Not yet, Bud. We're still looking."

"Any leads?" Erin asked.

"Nothing other than what I got from Grace."  
"You'll find her, Danny." Erin's heart broke for her brother. She knew he was blaming himself for Grace being taken and there was absolutely no convincing him otherwise.

Back in the basement, Grace was really jonesing over the fact that her family was probably sitting down to dinner without her. She made her way over to the cabinet and selected a bottle of wine. She had a couple of glasses and passed out on the bed. She was fading in and out when Steton, another made member of the Burke crew, came in and took full advantage of her. Connor came in with dinner shortly after and ran him out.

The following morning, Grace had a killer headache, part hangover, part dehydration when Carter came in with strawberry danishes and milk. "Here. Eat."

"No."

"Look, little girl. I know this isn't the famous Reagan family dining room, but you could at least be thankful that your **father** brought you something. I don't see Danny Reagan bringing in any breakfast for you. He's already forgotten all about you."

"Yeah. Well, if my father would've brought me breakfast, he would've known that I'm allergic to strawberries and I hate milk, but you wouldn't know that because you aren't my father."

Carter took a deep breath. He knew what she said was true, but it didn't keep his temper from rising. "Look, we've got a party on Friday. You're going to need an outfit. What size are you? I'll send Chelsea for some clothes."

"What?"

"You need clothes. You can't continue to wear that ratty old shirt and those shorts forever. What size are you?"

"Six. Medium."

"Was that so hard? She'll be back later with some clothes… or maybe one of the boys will bring it down."

"I just have one question," Grace said as he began to walk up the stairs.

"What?"

"Why did you take me if clearly you don't want me? You locked me in a basement and let me get repeatedly attacked by your friends. Why would you do this to someone you claim to care about? A father doesn't do that."

"Someone will be back later with clothes," Carter growled as he got up and stormed out. "Take a bath."

Grace took a shower as quick as humanly possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough. Chelsea had given another wonderful thug the clothes and some Chinese food to bring to Grace. When he found her in the shower, he decided to join her. After he had finished, he left her sobbing, in the floor feeling totally violated. This was the Hell Grace lived for the next four days. Connor, the only one that had been nice to her, had suddenly disappeared. She tried her hardest to stay on guard and only come out of the small bathroom when she knew that there was nobody in the basement.

On Thursday night, Danny and Baez were kicking in doors on the east side while Jamie and Eddie were on patrol on the west side when all four received a 10-2 to report to 1PP. They put on lights and got there as quickly as possible, knowing there had to be some development on Grace's case. Baker took the four of them straight into Frank's office when they arrived where Frank, Garrett, and Gormley stood with Pete Carraway, an undercover detective.

"Thanks for coming so quickly. We have a lead. Do you all know Pete?"

They all shook hands and then turned back to Frank. "What's the lead, Commissioner?"

"Pete here has been undercover in the Mazzanti Crime family for a few months now. He's gotten lots of chatter about a shipment of hand guns and cocaine moving tomorrow night."

"Why do we care about the Mazzantis? They are rivals of the Burkes."

"We have reason to believe there is going to be an all out mob war. The Mazzantis are planning on intercepting the Burke's shipment tomorrow night in Washington Heights."

"That makes no sense. Grace told me she was on the east side."

"Exactly," Gormley said. "Think about it Danny. They didn't let her call to be nice. They knew she'd drop a hint and have you chasing your tail on the east side."

"And then they'd make their hit on the west side. Son of a…"

That night, Danny filled in Linda on all of the developments and plans for the following night. For the first time all week he was at home to shower and rest for a few hours before returning to work. Linda needed that time. She needed Danny to hold her. "You bring her home, Danny Reagan. You bring our daughter back to me."

"I will."

The following night, Linda left the boys with Pop as she and Danny both went to work. "Call me when you know something."

The Burkes had all assembled at the warehouse to travel to Washington Heights together. Chelsea was sent to collect Grace, who once again refused to leave the bathroom. Extremely annoyed at this point, Carter stomped down the stairs, kicked in the door, and slammed Grace into a wall before dragging her upstairs. "Pull it together," he ordered when they reached the top of the stairs. Grace took a couple of deep breaths before they joined everyone else. Grace could barely stand at this point. She hadn't eaten in almost a week and had only had water and wine to drink. She really thought this was going to be it. No matter what happened, she wasn't going back to that basement.

The Burke crew made their way to Washington Heights where Grace quickly realized she was there for one reason. She overheard Carter telling Toby that they would gladly be handing her over to the Mezzantis because he was sure after she smarted off to them one time, they would put a bullet in her head and they'd be off the hook for her kidnapping. The trade began relatively calmly, but when the Mezzantis arrived, all heck broke loose. Guns were firing and people were screaming and then, all of a sudden, people started dropping all around Grace. Carter used her as a human shield as he made his way across the parking lot. Grace heard a shot, fully expecting to feel pain before she hit the ground. Lying on the ground she could see blood puddling, but couldn't figure out where if was coming from. Then, all of a sudden, she saw the most glorious sight she'd seen in over a week.

"Danny, I got her! Grace!" she heard Jamie scream as she tried to wrestle her way out from under the limp body of Carter Burke. She was so weak, though, she couldn't move until Danny ran to her and pulled her out. The army of cops that Danny had brought with him had either killed or captured every member of the Burkes and Mezzantis, but there was only one person the Jamie and Danny were there to get… and they had done it.

"Hey, Kiddo," he smiled as he looked at her gauntly figure. "I've been looking for you."

"Dad," Grace squeaked out.

"You know, this is the place we met… Grace. Grace!"

Danny gathered Grace into his arms and hurried over to the closest ambulance. "We need to go to St. Vic's. Now. He turned back to Jamie. "Call Dad."

"I got it Danny. Go. We'll be right behind you." Eddie drove so Jamie could make the calls.

"Jamie?!" Frank's voice was eager for good news.

"We got her dad."  
"How is she?"

"On the way to the hospital. She's not conscious, but I think she just passed out. She didn't get shot or anything. Danny's with her. We're headed to St. Vic's."  
"I'll meet you there."

Jamie also called Erin and Henry. By the time he had placed those calls, they were pulling up in the emergency room parking lot. Eddie was a much faster driver than he ever thought about being.

Linda was waiting at the emergency room doors when Danny burst through, holding Grace's hand as they wheeled her inside. The nurses tried to make him stay outside, but wild horses would not have been able to drag him away. Dr. Keller immediately ordered a saline iv to try and get her hydrated. Grace woke up shortly after they started the iv as they began cutting away her dress and putting her in a gown. "Stop it! Don't touch me!" Grace screamed as she sat up, trying to pull away from everyone working on her.

"It's ok, Gracie. You're ok," Danny soothed. "We've got you."

"Grace," Dr. Keller began, "are you hurting anywhere?"

"Dad?! Please don't let them touch me." She started shaking and crying and holding on to Danny for dear life.

"Shhh! Grace. You're ok." Danny looked to the doctor and then to Linda.

"What is wrong with her?"

"I think she's still in shock," Linda said as she leaned down next to her so Grace could focus on her face. "Hey, Sweet Girl. I'm right here. Daddy is right here too. Let us get you checked out and we will take you home. I promise."

"Mom?"

"Yes, baby. I'm here."

"Momma, it was awful. Those men… they…"

Dr. Keller looked to Linda. They had seen this one too many times. "Grace, I'm going to give you a mild sedative so I can check you out and make sure everything is ok before I send you home, ok? This will just relax you a little bit. I know you've been through a lot tonight."

Linda looked to Danny. "Danny, why don't you go tell the family that she's awake while Dr. Keller checks her out?"

"I don't want to leave her."  
Linda leaned over to whisper in his ear. "I think it's best you don't see this part. We need to do a rape kit." At that point, Danny deflated. He always knew it was a possibility, but something about the way Linda said it, he knew that these monsters had really hurt his little girl.

"Grace, I'm going out to tell Grandpa that you're awake, ok? I'll be back in just a little bit."

The entire Reagan family, plus Baker, Garrett, Jim, Gormley, Baez, and Eddie were all in the waiting room eagerly awaiting an update. Danny walked out with a look of relief. "She's ok." Collectively, they all sighed a sigh of relief, releasing a week's worth of tension. "She's severely dehydrated and she's been beaten up a little from what I could tell, but she's ok."

Everyone exchanged hugs as Frank slapped Danny on the back and pulled him off to the side of the room. "There's more?"

"Huh?"

"Danny, I know you. What else?"

"They're doing a rape kit."

When Dr. Keller finished his examination, he clued in Linda on the results. "Grace has definitely been sexually assaulted and she is severely dehydrated. Her body is also in starvation mode. It looks as though it's been a few days since she's eaten."

"Mama, can I go home now?" Grace asked weakly.

"We need to keep you just until we get all of this iv in you. Will that be ok, Miss Grace?" Dr. Keller asked. Grace nodded. "How long has it been since you had something to eat?"

"I ate a doughnut on… Sunday."

"And since you slept?"

"I slept a little each night for a few hours at a time. I tried to stay awake as much as I could… to be on guard."

"Well, it's all over now. We'll get you hydrated and give you a few antibiotics and then we'll get you home. You might want to start slow, eat some soup or something light, and work your way back up to family dinners. Ok?"

"Ok."

"I'm going to get Daddy," Linda said as she started let go of Grace's hand.

"NO! Don't leave me."

"Ok," Linda said as they moved her into a curtained off area. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll call Daddy and tell him to come back."

Linda called Danny and he was back in about thirty seconds. "Hey Ella Grace. I told you I'd find you."

"Hey Daddy," she smiled wearily. "Come sit with me." Danny jumped up on the hospital bed and gathered Grace into his arms.

"Did they…" he whispered to Linda.

She nodded sadly as he tightened his jaw and his grip around Grace. Had he been able to put his hands on any member of the Burke family right then, he would've disassembled every bone in their body one-by-one. At that point, he was convinced he was never going to let her out of his sight again. "Can you go get Baez to take her statement?" This was absolutely the last thing Linda wanted to put her daughter through, but she knew it was necessary. "Gracie, do you think you could tell us what happened this week if I get Det. Baez in here?"

"It was awful," Grace began to cry.

"I know." He tightened his grip around her in an attempt to make her feel secure as he kissed the top of her head.

"I'll be right back." Linda walked out to the anxious crowd. "Hey guys. We will be going home after she gets one more saline iv for the dehydration. I know that you are all anxious to see her, but Danny thinks it'd be best to go ahead and get her statement out of the way." Being the Reagans, they all understood. "Maria, Danny wanted you to come and do it. Please."

"Sure," Baez said as she took the small notebook and pen out of her pocket.

Frank looked to Linda from across the room and raised his eyebrows. He didn't have to say a word for her to know what he was asking. She gave a slight nod and then turned to show Baez where to go.

"Hey Grace," Baez smiled, gently. "I'm so glad to see you. We've been mighty worried about you."

"Thanks."

"So your dad tells me you're ready to do your statement. Can you tell me what happened?"

Grace relayed the events of the kidnapping. She tried to remember how to get to the warehouse, but wasn't sure her directions were good enough. She described each and every one of the goons that she had encountered. She told them how she didn't have anything to eat and the only thing to drink was wine. She started to cry as she told them about the sexual assault. Baez leaned over and cupped Grace's hand with her own hand.

"You were very brave, Grace. And you did everything just right to keep yourself alive long enough for us to come and find you."

"Detective Baez."

"Yeah, Grace?"

"Connor was the only one that was nice to me. He brought me a little bit of food and drinks before Carter cut him off from coming to see me. And he did pull a couple of guys off of me. I mean, he did kidnap me, but I don't think he knew what Carter had planned."

She smiled. "I'm glad he was kind to you. I think we have everything we need. Just rest now, Grace."

Grace was still clinging to Danny for dear life when Baez made her way out and sent Frank and the boys back. "Sassy!" Jack and Sean both screamed as they dove into the arms of their sister. Grace smiled as she ran her hands through their curly hair and kissed them both on the top of their heads.

"Hey guys. I've missed you." It took a minute, but she finally realized Frank was standing about two feet behind them. "Hi Grandpa."

Frank's eyes glistened with tears as he took in the sight before him, Danny's family reunited and safe. "Hi Granddaughter." Sean got up and moved to Linda's lap so that Frank could walk up to the bedside for a hug. The moment he wrapped her in his arms, he melted and offered up a prayer of thanks for her safe return.

Linda managed to find some scrubs for Grace to wear home, and shortly after midnight, she was released. "You want to get a shower or maybe eat some soup?" Linda asked as they walked into the house. Grace closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the familiar scent of the Reagan home that she thought she would never see again. "Grace?"

"Yes ma'am. I really need to take a shower."

"Ok. Head up and I'll bring you some clean pajamas."

Grace stared upstairs, trying not to flash back to the basement staircase. "It's ok," Danny assured her. He grabbed her hand as he sensed her hesitation. "I'll go up with you and make sure all is good."

"What's wrong with Sassy?" Sean whispered to Linda as they watched Grace and Danny slowly ascend the staircase.

"She went through some bad stuff," Linda tried to explain. "Let's go in the kitchen and talk for a minute. Both of you." Linda sat down with the boys and while she didn't explain exactly what had happened, she was pretty sure that Jack understood. She instructed them not to bring it up unless Grace wanted to talk about it and warned them to definitely not ask any questions.

"How long until she's back to normal?"  
"I'm not sure. We'll just have to take it a day at a time. Just be there for her and she'll eventually come back around."

Danny held on to Grace as she walked into her room and gathered everything she would need for a shower. He walked into the bathroom in front of her and turned on the lights and swung back the curtain. It was his way of showing her that there was nothing there to be afraid of. He even opened the closet door and took out a towel and washcloth for her.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, Grace?"

"Will you just sit at the door, please?"

"Sure, Gracie. I'll be right outside the door."

Grace turned on the water and got into the shower, attempting to scrub away the filth and memories of the past week. Danny slid down the wall outside the bathroom and ran his hands over his face. "Everything ok?" Linda asked as she walked up to find him.

"Yeah. She just doesn't want to be alone. I think the shower was a very vulnerable place for her." Danny tried to fight off breaking down, but every time he thought about what they had done to his daughter, he felt like he was going to lose it. "Lin, when I think of what those monsters did to her..."

"I know, Danny, but we can't focus on that. We have to focus on making her feel safe again."

"Dad!" he heard Grace scream in a panic.

He cracked open the bathroom door. "What is it Grace?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were..."

"I'm right here, Sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere."

"Ok."

"Mama's here too." He tried to continue making small talk so that she would know he was there. When Grace finished her shower and got dressed, she found Danny, still seated outside the door. "Feel better?" She nodded. "Good. Think you could try eating some soup? Mama's got some chicken noodle on the stove."

"I guess so."

Danny and Grace met Jack and Sean on the staircase. "Mom sent us to bed, Sassy. But we'll stay up if you want us to."

Grace smiled. "It's ok, Seany. We'll hang out tomorrow."

"Ok. I'm glad your home," he said with a hug.

"Me too."

Jack hugged her as well. "Goodnight. Love you."

"Night boys," Danny said as he ruffled their hair.

Grace and Danny made their way to the kitchen to find Linda with a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, crackers, yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal cookies, tea and water on the table. "Hey sweet girl, have a seat and let me know if you don't see anything that you would like and I'll get it for you."

"This is fine," Grace said as she took a seat and took a few bites of soup. "Do you guys have to work tomorrow?"

"No way. We're all going to hang out here tomorrow. Boys included." Linda had her left hand propping up her chin and her right arm, outstretched across the table, patting Grace's forearm. "You want some toast?"

"No thanks." She pushed the soup bowl back away from her. "I'm really kind of tired."

"Of course," Linda said. "It's late. Let's go get some rest. We'll eat a good breakfast in the morning."

They turned off the lights and headed upstairs. "Dad, I know I told you I was a grown tail woman and all… but… can I stay with you and Mom tonight?"

"Absolutely. If you didn't, Mom and I were going to come and stay with you," Danny smiled, trying to make her feel less ashamed about being terrified to be by herself. They settled into bed with Grace in the middle. It took a little while for her to fully realize she was home and she was safe. She was nestled in the crook of Danny's right arm while tightly gripping Linda's left arm.

"Let's say our prayers, huh?" Linda asked as she looked at her wide-eyed daughter. "Now I lay me, down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. May angels watch me through the night, and wake me with the morning light. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." After a few minutes of reassurance that she was in fact safe, she drifted off to sleep.

"I think she's finally out," Danny whispered.

"What are we going to do?" Linda asked. "That's not our Grace."

"She's just been through Hell and back, Linda. I say we give her some time. I told Sarge already that I'm taking off the rest of the week. I say we just hang out as a family. She can get back in a routine next week. I'm confident the boys will be fine with that."

"Yeah. I'll call the school and let them know. I told Ashley tonight that I wasn't sure when I'd be back to work. She said to take all the time we needed."

"I think Pop wanted us to come over for dinner tomorrow. You good with spending the afternoon in Bay Ridge?"

"Yeah. I think having the whole family there will be a good thing." They laid in silence for a moment. Just before Danny was about to drift off, Linda swung her arm right arm over Grace and grabbed his left hand. "Hey Danny."

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Our girl is home."

Grace was jolted awake in a cold sweat at about 4:00am, as were her parents. "NO! Stop! Don't hurt me! Please!" she screamed as she sat up in the middle of the bed.

"Grace! Gracie! It's ok." Danny and Linda both said as they sat up and turned on the lights. "Everything is fine. We got you. You're home."

Grace tried to regain her composure as she took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Don't worry about it," Linda said. "It's ok. You're ok."

"Dad?" Sean said, rubbing his eyes as he and Jack appeared in the doorway. "Is Sassy all right?"

"She's fine, guys. Go back to sleep. Everything's ok." They didn't move as they stood with eyes, glued to their sister.

"Or you could climb up here and stay with us for the rest of the night," Linda smiled. "Would you like that?" They both nodded as the now already crowded bed of three became a jam-packed bed of five.

"It didn't take the kids long at all to fall asleep once they were all piled up together, each of the boys with an arm thrown over their sister. Danny was dangling off the right side of the bed and Linda off the left side. They each had one arm stretched out so they could hold hands. "You know, Mama," Danny whispered, "this was much easier when they were little. We're going to need a bigger bed."

Linda chuckled. "It's just perfect."


	13. Chapter 13

As uncomfortable as they were, the Reagans did manage to sleep until around 9:00am. Danny was the first to wake up and slip out of bed to go and start some coffee. He grabbed his phone which was lit up with texts and calls from friends and family checking on Grace. He replied to a few texts and then returned a call to Henry who insisted that everyone come to his house for dinner. Linda joined him shortly after and started making breakfast.

"Chocolate chip waffles?" Danny smiled.

"Like you even had to ask."

Sean stumbled down the stairs shortly after Linda started frying some bacon. "Hey buddy," she smiled as she gave him a hug. "Are your brother and sister up?"

"Not yet." About that time, they heard a scream and a loud thud. "I guess they are now."

Danny sprinted up the stairs to find Grace, once again, wide eyed and out of breath, and Jack in the floor. "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah… I just… fell off the bed," Jack lied, not wanting to sell out the fact that Grace had just freaked out and pushed him in the floor, thinking he was going to attack her. Danny nodded, clearly able to read between the lines.

"Why don't you run down stairs? Mom's got waffles and bacon ready for you."

"Ok. Sas, you ready for breakfast?"

Grace didn't say anything as Danny eased over to the side of the bed. "We'll be down in just a minute. Tell Sean not to eat all the bacon." Jack got up and made his way downstairs as Danny took a seat beside Grace. "Hey. Bad dream?"

"You could say that."

"Well, the good thing is, it's over and you're safe. Wanna come down and get some breakfast?" Grace buried her face in her hands as she took another deep breath.

"Dad, what's wrong with me?"

"Nothing, Grace. Nothing is wrong with you. You went through something so terrible… a kind of horror that most people won't go through in their entire lives, and you won. It may not seem like it, but you won. You kept your wits about you and you did what you had to do to survive. You're going to be just fine. It's just going to take some time. And me, Mama, Jack, and Sean are going to be there the whole time. We're going to get through this together." He pulled her into a hug as she wiped a few stray tears from her eyes. "Now, how about we go put a little bit of weight back on you, huh? If not, your great-grandfather may start force feeding you mashed potatoes and gravy."

As Grace and Danny made their way to the kitchen, there was a knock at the door. Grace froze as Danny looked out the window. "It's ok. It's just your uncle." He opened the door and smiled. "Hey Jamie. Come on in. Linda has waffles."

"Thanks." He walked in and wrapped Grace in a hug, "Hey Tadpole."

"Hey." Grace pulled back and looked right in his eyes. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Jamie threw an arm around her and followed Danny to the kitchen. "You can repay me by not telling Grandpa I stopped by." Grace gave him a very confused look. "He told us not to bother you."

"So we can expect Erin and Nicki any minute?" Danny laughed.

"Yep. Pretty sure I saw them pulling in behind me."

About that time the doorbell rang. Danny went to answer the door and sure enough came back with Erin and Nicki who both immediately went straight to Grace for a hug. It wasn't too long before they were all packed around Danny and Linda's dining room table eating waffles and talking about plans for the day.

"You got a tour today?" Danny asked as he handed Jamie the syrup.

"Nope," Jamie answered. "I banged in sick. Don't tell the Commissioner."

Grace chuckled for the first time all morning. "That list is starting to get long, Uncle Jamie."

Erin exchanging a smile with Danny. "So what time do we have to be at Dad's?" she asked.

"Grandpa said dinner would be at 6:00pm. I'm thinking we might as well pack a bag because you know Dad's going to make us all spend the night and go to church together tomorrow." He looked to his phone as it began vibrating. "Well, speak of the devil."

"Don't tell him we're here," Erin whispered, pointing to herself and Nicki.

"Or me." Jamie whispered.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Hey Dad. We're good… just sitting here eating breakfast." A sparkle hit his eyes as a smile spread across his face. "I did talk to both of them this morning. I'm not sure if they're working or not. I know they're planning on being at dinner by 6:00pm."

"Good, would you mind telling both of them that they are on dishes tonight for doing the one thing I told them not to do?" Frank asked as he walked through the front door of Danny's house and stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking at his two youngest children like they had just gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. He ended the call, put his phone in his pocket, and awaited an explanation.

Jamie looked to Erin, as if to tell her to go first with her excuse. "Hi Dad," she said as she took a sip of coffee.

His face was stoic, but it was clear he was hiding a wry smile as he looked to Jamie. "Hey," his youngest grinned. "What… um… what are you doing here?"  
"OH just thought I would stop by on my way to work. What's your excuse?"  
"Linda makes great waffles."

"Uh huh." He turned back to Erin. "And you?"

"Nicki wanted to stop by for a visit," she managed to say with a straight face as she took another sip of coffee.

"What? Mom!" They all chuckled.

"Looks like she just threw you under the bus," Jack laughed.

Frank walked over and leaned down to kiss Grace on the top of the head. "Well, since you are all here, Pop said to let you know that dinner will be ready at 6:00pm sharp. And since we aren't eating until 6:00pm, I think you should all pack a bag and spend the night with us tonight. There's a John Wayne marathon that starts at 9:00pm." They all tried to hide their smiles as they looked to Danny.

"10-4 Dad."

"Hey Grandpa, what do you think about inviting a few extras over for dessert?" Grace asked.

"Sure, Princess. Who do you want to invite?"

"Well, I was thinking… Detective Baez, Eddie, Jim, Garrett, Baker, and Sarge… they all looked real tired last night at the hospital… which I can only assume means they've been working pretty hard this week." Jamie, Frank, and Danny all smiled. They knew exactly how hard their friends had worked to bring Grace home. "I was thinking, maybe if it was ok... could we invite them over for cake or something? I'll cook it."

"I think they would love that."

By the time everyone left, it was already 11:00am. They only had about six hours before they had to leave for Bay Ridge, although they knew they could go at any time and Pop would be happy. "What's the plan today, Dad?" Jack asked as they retired to the living room after seeing everyone to their cars.

"I was thinking we could take it easy today since everyone had a late night. What about you, Grace? Want to do anything?"

"I was going to make dessert like I promised Grandpa. Mom, will you help me?"

"I would love to spend the afternoon in the kitchen with you."

"And I would love to spend the afternoon taste-testing whatever you make," Sean smiled.

Grace and Linda made their way back to the kitchen where Linda grabbed a notebook and a pen and leaned over the counter to write. "Let's make a list. We'll do a key lime pie for Frank, red velvet cupcakes for Erin, chocolate chip cookies for Jamie, and orange kiss truffles for Daddy. How does that sound?"

"Perfect."

"We're going to need some ingredients thought so we need to run to the grocery…" Linda saw Grace's eyes go wide.

"You know what? Why don't we send Daddy to pick up the ingredients and you and I will start on the cupcakes. We've got everything we need for them." Grace nodded. "Go ahead and grab the flour, oil, eggs, and sugar and I'll give him the list." Linda made her way into the livingroom. "Hey Babe, could you run down to the store for us and pick up a few things?"

"Yep. Boys, want to ride?"

"Sure," they shrugged, knowing good and well they could probably talk Danny into a milkshake.

"Go get your shoes." Jack and Sean took off upstairs as Danny looked to Linda. "What else?"

"Sorry. I know you wanted to rest, but the thought of going to the grocery store freaked her out," Linda whispered.

"It's fine. We'll be back in a little while. Keep the doors locked."

"We will. Stay together. Call and check in?"

"Will do."

When Danny opened the door to go to the car, Millie, Haliley, and Taylor were on the doorstep. "Hey Detective Reagan, where's Gracer?"

Danny smiled. No way was he going to be able to keep those three out. He smiled. "She's in the kitchen with her mom." He grabbed Hailey's arm as she burst through the door. "Take it slow, she's a little jumpy."

"Got it."

"Hey Jack. Hey Sean," they all said as they rushed inside.

Assuming they hadn't listened to a word he said, Danny yelled inside to let Grace and Linda know that they were about to be ambushed. "Gracie, the girls are here!"

Danny called Baez as soon as he and the boys got in the car.

"Hey Partner, how are ya?"  
"Good. How are things at your house?"  
"Much better. Look, we're all going to my dad's place tonight and Grace wanted to see if you'd join us for dessert. She said she knew you'd worked hard bringing her home."  
"She wants me to come to the Commissioner's house?" Baez asked, shocked. "I mean, is that ok with the Commish?"  
Danny laughed. "It's fine. He's not going to cook you and eat you. Besides, he would agree to absolutely anything Grace wanted. And we all want you there too… as a thank you."  
"That's awesome, Danny. I'd be honored."  
"Look, don't get all choked up. It's just dessert."

Maria rolled her eyes. "I'll be there. What time?"  
"7:00pm. See ya then."

The Commissioner told his crew when he got to the office. None of them had plans… or at least they said they didn't… and agreed to be there at 7:00pm. He also invited Pete Carraway since he was instrumental in piecing it all together. Unfortunately, Pete was still knee deep undercover, so he had to decline, with the complete understanding of the Commissioner.

Jamie decided to swing by Eddie's place on his way back to his apartment. He couldn't wait to see her reaction. She had been bugging him for so long to get her an invite to family dinner so he could only imagine what she might do.

"Well hey Reagan," Eddie smiled as she opened her door. "I thought you were sick today?"

"Yeah well, I recovered. What about you? What's your excuse?"

"I was sick too… sick of you pushing me off on Crizynsky." She laughed at her on joke as Jamie just rolled his eyes. "So what's up?"  
"Well, I have an invitation for you?"

"Invitation?"

"Yeah. I just left Danny's house. We're all going to my dad's house tonight and I've been told to invite you over for drinks and dessert."

"I'm sorry, what?"  
"Grace wants to do a thank you of sorts for the people that brought her home. You're one of those people."

"The Commissioner's house? I finally get to go to the Commissioner's house for dinner?"

"It's not dinner. It's just dessert and drinks."

"I'm going to the Commissioner's house!" she beamed as she punched him in the shoulder. He jumped back and rubbed the sore spot. "What should I wear?"

"Preferably clothes."

"Reagan! This is huge. Come help me pick out an outfit!"

She grabbed Jamie's hand and drug him into her bedroom. "Seriously. Just wear what you've got on. It's not a black tie event."

"Well, what are you wearing?"

"Probably this. I mean, I may throw on a sweater."

"Lambchop, this is dinner at the Commissioner's house! You can't wear that."

"Eddie, I don't think you've noticed, but I've been there before. I mean, I grew up there. I'm actually spending the night there, so you're crazy if you think I'm going to get all dressed up to eat homemade cupcakes."

She still wasn't listening. She was already knee deep in clothes pulled from her closet.

"What do you think about this?"  
"A pink cocktail dress?"

"What? Shouldn't do pink or shouldn't do cocktail?"

This had suddenly become less fun than Jamie had thought it was going to be. Wardrobe fittings were not his thing. "I'm telling you. Just wear jeans. It's completely casual." Eddie furrowed her brow which Jamie thought was absolutely adorable. "I'm sorry. Am I ruining this for you? Look, when you finally get an invitation for dinner and there are actual lambchops involved, then you can dress up. Until then, just stick with jeans."

Eddie stared at him for a moment before going back into the closet and bringing out a handful of skirts. "So, let's talk about atmosphere. Are you guys like the Kennedys? Do I need to brush up on my history and politics or do you prefer silence? 'Cause I've got to tell you, I'd rather study all afternoon and do roundtable history quiz than have to sit in awkward silence with the Commissioner." She was talking a mile a minute. Jamie rolled his eyes as he collapsed onto the bed and put the pillow over his face.

Back in Staten Island and much to Linda's surprise, the girls did a good job of dancing around the issue of Grace's kidnapping, being careful not to ask any questions, but rather fill her in on everything that she had missed over the past week. As always, Hailey brought the humor. When Danny called to check in from the store, Hailey told him that they were in dire need of Cracker Jacks.

"What else, Hales?" Danny asked, rolling his eyes.

"Chocolate doughnuts."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Come on! You're a cop. You of all people should be able to feel empathy for me."

Danny and the boys returned shortly after, with all of the ingredients in hand. He dropped the bag of doughnuts and Cracker Jacks in Hailey's lap as she sat at the table icing cupcakes.

"Aw, thanks, Detective Reagan. You're my favorite."

"Yeah right," he laughed.

By the time they got ready to leave for Frank's house for the night, Grace and Linda had enough desserts to feed half of the men and women on the New York City Police Force. When they arrived and saw what all Henry had cooked for dinner, they realized there was enough food to feed the other half.

"I'm not usually one to get mushy over dinner, but I would like to say something," Frank said as they all sat down. "This night could've turned out a lot differently had it not been for all of you. Each and every person seated around this table played a vital role in bringing Grace safely home and in case I don't say it enough, I'm proud of you." Danny put an arm around Linda and kissed the side of her head as her eyes filled with tears. Jamie reached over and patted Grace on the back. "So…" he held out his hands on either side and waited for them all to follow suit. For once, there was no complaint from anyone about having to hold hands for the prayer. He prayed a beautiful prayer that nearly had them all in tears by the time he finished.

The Reagans had just finished dinner and cleared the table when there was a knock at the door. Jamie got up to answer it and found Jim, Baker, and Garrett. "Dad! Your handlers are here." They chuckled as they followed him into the dining room.

"Hey!" Frank smiled. "Grab a seat. We're just sitting out all the desserts. Coffee will be ready in a minute."

Grace, Linda, Nicki, and Linda all walked in from the kitchen, each with a platter of goodies. "Hey! You came!" Grace smiled.

"Of course," Garrett smiled back as he got up to give her a hug. "Good to see you Grace." She made her way around the table and hugged Baker and Jim as well.

"Thanks for everything that you did."

"We're glad you're home, Grace," the usual stoic, Jim said, giving her another hug. She wasn't for certain, but she could almost see a glint of a tear in his eye.

"Did you make all of this?" Baker asked, shocked at the amount of snacks stacked around the table.

"Me, Mom, and three of my friends."

"I should probably go out and see if Sid is here. He may be too nervous to come in." Garrett said as he got up and walked out the front door. Sure enough, he found Sid, Eddie, and Baez, all fighting over who had to knock on the door. "Here they are," he announced, bringing them all in out of the cold.

"Hey! Danny shouted where he sat, relaxed, with one arm around Linda. "The party can officially begin."

"Looks like it already has," Sid laughed, looking at Sean, who had icing all over his mouth. "How is it, Seany?"  
"Delicious. I've had one of everything."

Linda frowned in his direction. "He's not kidding."

Grace hugged each of them before they all took a seat at the table. Eddie slid in beside Jamie as quick as humanly possible.

"Hey," he smiled. "Nice outfit. No pink dress?"  
"Shut up, Reagan."

"Thank you all for coming," Frank said as everyone settled in. "I know it was short notice, but this was important to Ella Grace, so I appreciate you all taking the time."

"Of course," Garrett said as they all nodded in agreement.

"I know Grace has individually thanked all of you, but I too need to express my thanks." Frank took a deep breath and contemplated his words. "I can't always do it from the 14th floor, but please know, no case to me has ever been greater than finding that beautiful young woman sitting at that end of the table. And I do recognize that each and every one of you played a vital role, so thank you… from all of the Reagans."

"I second that," Danny said. "For one of the darkest points in my life, I've got to say, I wouldn't have wanted any other team backing me up. Now, let's eat. Gracie, tell 'em what ya got."

"Key lime pie because it's Grandpa's favorite, red velvet cupcakes because they are Aunt Erin's favorites, chocolate chip cookies for Pop, orange kiss truffles for my Dad, million-dollar pie for Uncle Jamie, fruity rice krispie treats for the boys, and peanut butter fudge for whoever likes peanut butter fudge.

"Wow," Baez said with eyes wide open, "You did all this?"  
"Me and Mom and a couple of my friends."

"So this is the famous Reagan dinner table?" Eddie whispered to Jamie.

He chuckled. "Yeah. This is it."

"Wow. I kinda thought it would be bigger. I think I need to come back one Sunday when there aren't as many people."

"Uh huh."

"Do you guys have assigned seats or do you just sit wherever?"

Jamie looked at her like she was crazy. "I mean, they aren't assigned, but we normally keep it the same."

"Can I see your room?"

"What?" he chuckled as he nearly choked on his drink.

"I want to see where little Lambchop grew up! Do you have dinosaurs on your bedsheets?"

"No, but he does have a teddy bear on his dresser," Sean smiled. "His name is Teddy."

Jamie began to blush as Eddie's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Tell me more Sean."

"You know what? I think you need another cupcake," Jamie said, shoving a cupcake into Eddie's mouth. Jack and Sean laughed as icing spread all over Eddie's nose, lips, and chin.

"Funny, Reagan. Real funny..." Eddie started to shove a cupcake right back in his face when he stuck up one finger.

"Think very hard about what you're about to do. The Commissioner is watching." Jamie smiled as he knew he had her.

Eddie squinted her eyes and stared at him for a beat. "Watch your back, Reagan. Watch. Your. Back."


	14. Chapter 14

That night was the first step of healing for Grace. She was still terrified to be alone and was still jumpy anytime she had to take a shower, but her family poured on the love and her friends poured on the insanity and they all just waited to return to normalcy. Frank kept a quiet eye out and reminded Danny and Linda to let Grace lead. "It may take a week, it may take a month, it may take a year or longer. She's been through a lot."

"I know, Dad," Danny assured him. "Heck, I'm not sure I'm over it. We're still having a hard time letting her out of our sight."

"And now that the kids are getting out of school for the summer…" Linda continued, "I don't know what we're going to do. They're too old for daycare but I don't really want them at home alone."

"How about you send them away to camp?" Henry suggested. "A couple of weeks in the wilderness may do wonders for Gracie's sanity."

"Communal showers? Pop she'd be the smelly kid in class because she wouldn't bathe until she came home."

"Oh yeah. Well, send the boys. Let them have fun. Send Grace to stay with me. She can work with me at the Retired Policeman's Charity."

That night at dinner, Danny and Linda pitched the idea to the kids. Jack and Sean were very receptive to the idea of returning to Camp Skyline. Henry had sent them every year since they were eight and they were excited to go back. They also wanted a break from the ever present hovering of their mother since the kidnapping. Grace was somewhat less excited about her summer outlook.

"I've got swim every morning from 8am-10am. I don't want to have to start the morning in Bay Ridge then go all the way to Staten Island only to go back to Bay Ridge. That's crazy."

"Well how about I drop you at swim and then Grandpa gets you after and I pick you up after work?"

"Dad…" Grace sighed. "That's ridiculous. I'll be fine. Parker's already said he'd come get me and bring me home. No big deal."

Jack and Sean left for camp the following Monday. Grace spent the next few weeks going to swim and hanging out at home afterward. Most days Danny and Linda would come home to find Hailey, Millie, and Taylor lounging around watching a movie. The girls were great company and something about having the four of them together, while there was always a chance they'd do something stupid, made Danny feel better about Grace not staying with Pop.

"Hey Babe! How late are you going to be stuck at work?" Danny asked Baez handed him a new folder.

"Well, Shonna's running late, but as soon as she gets here I'm headed out. Have you left yet?"

"I'm finishing up one DD5 and then I'm headed out. I thought I'd surprise Grace and take her and the girls out to dinner, since they've all been cooped up the past few weeks. Want to meet us at Grille 54 or want me to just bring something home for you?"

"I'm exhausted and I need a bath in the worst way. Take out sounds great if you can handle four teenage girls on your own."

"We'll be fine. I'll call you from the restaurant and get your order."

"Sounds good. Love you."

"Love you more."

"Love you most."

Danny happily made his way home, excited to surprise the girls with a night out. He found Hailey, Millie, and Taylor out front, kicking Jack's soccer ball. "Hey Detective Reagan!" Millie smiled as he got out and walked over to where they were.

"Hey girls. Where's my daughter?"

"Inside with… She's just inside," Hailey said as he attempted to dart off to go warn Grace. "I'll go get her."

"Inside with who?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Just a friend," Taylor answered innocently. "They just needed a minute to chat so we walked out."  
Hailey elbowed Taylor to stop talking as Danny's blood pressure slowly began to rise. "Stay here," he instructed. Danny burst through the door to find Grace, on the living room sofa, in a very compromising position with Parker.

"What the Hell is going on in here?!" he yelled as he stormed over and grabbed Parker by the scruff of the neck.

"Dad!" Grace gasped, shocked. "What are you doing home?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON TOP OF MY DAUGHTER?!"

"Calm down," Grace said as she sat up, smoothed out her sun dress, and fixed her hair. "We were just kissing."

"You're eighteen, right?" Parker nodded, slightly terrified. "Good. You're under arrest! Gracie is sixteen!"

Grace crossed her arms and glared at Danny. "You can't do that. You could only arrest him if we were having sex, which we weren't and if we were, it would've been consensual, so you still couldn't arrest him."

Both Parker and Danny's eyes got huge. "But we wouldn't do that, Sir. Absolutely not. Not here."

"Not ANYWHERE!" Danny fumed. "Get out of my house!" Danny led him over to the door and flung it open.

"Daddy, stop it! You are acting like a crazy person!"

Danny turned and glared at her. "Grace! If I were you, I'd be very, very quiet right now."

"Bye, Parker," she said quietly. "I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, in ten to twenty," Danny dead-panned as he slammed the door in Parker's face.

"I can't believe you did that!" Grace yelled as she stormed up the stairs.

"Young lady get back here. You have a lot of explaining to do!"

Grace stopped and turned to face him. "What's there to explain? My boyfriend dropped by to see me since I haven't been anywhere for the last two weeks and we decided to make out. It's not a big deal. We weren't having sex. We weren't drinking or doing drugs. We just kissed and YOU overreacted. End of story."

"Ella Grace!"

"Where's MOM?!"

About that time, Linda walked through the front door. "Mom's right here. What is going on? I could hear you two out on the front porch."

"Your husband is being ridiculous!"

"Ella Grace Reagan, you will not disrespect your father like that. Apologize right now." Grace folded her arms and furrowed her brow, clearly signifying she was standing her ground. "Oh so that's how it's going to be? That's fine. You have a right to be defiant right now. We also have the right to punish you for being defiant and disrespectful to your father. Go up to your room while I talk to Daddy and do not come down until you are called. Do you understand?" Grace turned and stomped up the stairs. "And you better start thinking of a proper apology!" Linda turned to Danny who was pacing in front of the fireplace. He rolled his sleeves and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Let me go make sure the girls get home safely and then we will talk. Behave yourself until I get back."

Linda went out to find the girls kicked back on the front porch. "Hey Mrs. Reagan, we didn't want to come in but we also didn't want you to think we'd gone missing. We're going to head on home. If Grace lives through the night, will you tell her to call us?"  
"It probably won't be tonight, but I assure you, she'll live," Linda laughed as she walked over and gave them all a hug. "Thank you for being such good friends to my daughter. Be careful going home."

The girls took off as Linda made her way back inside to find her husband pacing around with a beer in his hand. "Danny, what in the world happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened. I caught Parker Phelps on top of your daughter, who by the way, was wearing a very skimpy sun dress that I absolutely do not approve of. His tongue was halfway down her throat and I'm sure it was just a matter of time before his pants came off. That's what happened."

"Now Danny, you don't know that."

"I saw it with my own eyes… except the pants, but I was once a teenage boy so I know good and well they were about to go."

"Ok. Putting that aside for a minute, how do we want to handle what actually happened?"

"She is grounded. Beyond grounded. She's never to see that boy again."

"Honey, he goes to St. Mary's. She has to see him. And remember, she's sixteen. A little kissing is to be expected. You cannot keep her locked up forever. She's not Rapunzel."

"So you think we should just ignore this?"

"Absolutely not. That is not what I'm saying. I just don't want you to overreact. You and Grace are exactly the same and if someone doesn't step in and mediate between the two of you, you'll both blow up and say something you regret. I would like to avoid that if at all possible. Now, how would you like to handle this moving forward beside the obvious grounding?"

"No phone. No tv."

"So… Grace unplugged?"

"What else can we do? She's too old to spank."  
"How about one of Pop's charities? He's wanted her over there since school let out. Why don't we make her volunteer every day after swim for as long as she's grounded?"

A smile slowly crept across Danny's face. "I like it. And we won't tell Grandpa why. After eight weeks of questions and the inevitable lecture from the old man, she'll learn to behave herself."

"Sounds great. Would you like to tell her or should I?"  
"I'll do it. I also want to throw out that dress," Danny said as he headed toward the stairs.

"Heaven help us," Linda sighed as she rolled her eyes and quickly followed.

"Ella Grace," Danny began as he knocked on the door and let himself in before she could even answer. Grace was sitting in her bay window with one foot tucked underneath her and one foot on the ground. Her arms were crossed as she sat, staring out the window. Linda tried to suppress a smile as the thought ran through her mind that Grace looked exactly like Danny. The kid may not have his blood running through her veins, but she couldn't be any more like him if she tried. "Let's talk a minute."

"I know. I know. I was wrong. I screwed up again. How long am I grounded this time?" Danny furrowed his brow. Clearly he didn't like how this conversation was beginning. Grace softened a bit when she saw his face. "Sorry."

"Grace," Linda began, "I think you know we have very strict rules about when and where you can be with a boy. Home alone is NOT one of those places. Understood?"  
"Yes ma'am. But I am an adult mom. I'm sixteen years old…"

Linda continued without even acknowledging that lunacy. "It is unacceptable for you to ever put yourself in a position like you were in this afternoon. That could've gone wrong about seventeen different ways and potentially put you in a position that you weren't ready for." Grace chuckled at the word position, but quickly covered it with a cough when she saw Danny about to stroke. "You were wrong to be on that couch with Parker and you were wrong to disrespect your father."

"I know. I'm sorry, Dad. Really. I was just mad that you embarrassed me in front of my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Danny asked as he raised his eyebrows.

"My… Parker. I was just embarrassed. I'm sorry."

"For your penance, you will be spending every afternoon for the foreseeable future with Pop at the Retired Policeman's Club, serving snacks, leading square dances, calling BINGO numbers…"

"But Daaaaaaad…"

"That doesn't sound like a grown up response," Linda chuckled.

"Fine. I'm not a grown up!" Grace wailed. "Can't we just skip punishment. Don't make me go to the old folks home…"

The protest did Grace absolutely no good. She spent the next three weeks with Henry and the retired police force of New York City. The afternoon she was finally released, Grace wandered into the Humane Society across the street before heading home.

"Who you got on death row?" Grace asked as she dug into the bottom of her purse and pulled out $50. There really was no beating around the bush with Grace. It took all of two minutes before she was introduced to a small dwarf cat named Ozzy.

"This is Ozzy. He's six, a dwarf cat, and deaf. He's the next to go. We've got to make room for kitten season."

"I'll take him."

"$35 and You've got to have a parent or guardian sign for you."

Grace stood there and thought for a minute. She knew her dad would say no, as would her mom. "Give me five minutes. Don't let him go anywhere." Grace walked outside and called Henry, who of course didn't have his phone on so he missed the call. She thought through all of her options. "Grandpa's working… it will take Uncle Jamie too long to get here…" About that time, she saw Buzz Kennedy, one of Henry's friends leaving the Club. "Chief Kennedy!"

"What's up, Grace? Shouldn't you be headed home?"  
"I need help." Grace drug him over to the Shelter and explained the situation. With lots of coaxing, she got Buzz to agree to be her faux-grandfather and go in for the signature. Five minutes later, Grace had her cat and was on her way home.

"Grace Reagan, is that you?" Linda yelled as Grace opened the front door and crept toward the stairs.

"Yes ma'am. I'm going to put my stuff upstairs and I'll be down in a minute!"

"Not before your show me what's in that box," Linda smiled as she dried her hands on the dish towel she had slung over her shoulder.

"Busted," Grace sighed as she made an about-face and opened the cat carrier the shelter had given her.

"What is this?"

"Well, this is a cat. His name is Ozzy."

"Grace…"

"He was on death row and I rescued him. Isn't he cute?!"

"Grace…"  
"Mom… Please?"  
"Good luck explaining that to Daddy."  
"Explaining what do Daddy?" Danny asked as walked in the front door.

"Dad. Daaaaaad. Daaaaddddyyy…." Grace smiled as she walked over and threw her arms around Danny.

He didn't move, instead looked at her with great suspicion. "What have you done?"  
"I may've stopped by the animal shelter on my way home…" Danny raised an eyebrow. "And they may've had a cat on death row…" Danny leaned over to look around Grace and to the box where Linda had stooped over to pick up Ozzy.

"Is it still on death row?"

"And I may've come home with him."  
"Grace…"

"Dad…"

"Grace, what's that?"  
"Meet Ozzy," Grace smiled as she walked over and gathered the black and white cat into her arms. Danny's face never changed.

"Ella Grace Reagan…"

"Oh Daddy, I know what you're going to say, but just hear me out. He is a perfectly healthy six year old dwarf cat that they were going to MURDER for no reason just because it was kitten season. I couldn't let that happen and still be able to live with myself."  
"Why did you go to the shelter?"  
"To look."

"Grace, nobody goes to the shelter to just look."

"Pleeeeeease let me keep him. I just can't take him back to the shelter to be killed and if we turn him into the wild, he'll be killed because he's deaf."

"So he's a perfectly healthy cat that's both a dwarf and deaf? What part of dwarfed and deaf is perfectly healthy?"

"He's like I was. Remember? When I was that little bundle of joy that you found on that cold December night… unloved… unwanted… He just needs to be adopted by a wonderful family." Danny rolled his eyes as he looked to Linda. He wasn't buying any of the guilt trip Grace was trying to sell. "You won't even know that he's here. I'll do everything." Grace walked over and nuzzled back up again Danny who was still standing with his hands on his hips. "Please Daddy. He's one of God's creatures."

Danny took a deep breath before relenting. "Ok. You can keep your cat."

"Yay!" Grace squealed excitedly.

"But if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'm going to snap the furry, little creature's neck. Got it, Princess?"  
"Daddy!" Grace frowned.

"Oh I'm kinda kidding."

That night Danny locked up the house and made his way to Grace's room to say "Goodnight" before heading to bed himself. He found Grace curled up on her side with one arm slung over Ozzy who had his head on the pillow right beside her, completely at ease. Both were sound asleep. Linda chuckled as she walked in behind Danny. "I don't know which one of them is happier," Linda whispered as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"You know, after all she's been through, sometimes I think she's all grown up… then I see her like this… and she looks six years old again."

Linda smiled. "Come on, Mr. Reagan. Let's go to bed before you get all emotional."

"What can I say? I'm a sucker for my little girl."


	15. Chapter 15

"Hey G, you still grounded?" Millie asked as the girls all jumped in the pool and began their morning warm up.

"Sadly yes. Why?"

"We're all going shopping tonight for outfits for my birthday party this weekend. You've got to come."

"You really think Detective Reagan is going to cut Grace loose with the three of you in the mall?" Parker chuckled as he swam past.

"She wouldn't be in this situation if you could control yourself!" Hailey laughed as she reached over and pushed his head under the water. "Gracer, call your mom after practice and see if she'll let us swing by the mall after we leave here."

As instructed, Grace called Linda for permission. "Hey Mom, can I pleeeeeease go to the mall with the girls to look for outfits for Millie's sweet sixteen?"

"Who's driving?"  
"Taylor… the responsible one."

"I don't know. Aren't you still grounded?"  
"I've been grounded for weeks and I promise I've learned my lesson. Pleeeeeeease?"

"Call Daddy. If it's ok with him, it's ok with me."

Grace sighed. She knew Danny would be a harder sell, but hoped she could catch him distracted and get the permission she so desperately wanted.

"Reagan?"

"Hey Dad, it's Grace."  
"Hi Gracie. What's up?"

"Can I please go to the mall with Hales, Millie, and Taylor to look for outfits for Millie's sweet sixteen party?" Danny took a deep breath and Grace continued before he could even answer. "Please! I asked Mom and she said it's ok with her if it's ok with you. And I know I'm technically still grounded but I've been grounded for a really long time and I'm super sorry for my sins and I'll try to do better. Please?"  
"Ok," Danny sighed. "You can go. I'll come pick you up on my way home. I should be there by 6:00pm."

"Or Millie could bring me home after…"

"Ella Grace." She knew there would be no arguing with him. "I'll be there at 6:00pm. Keep your phone on so I don't have to go looking in every single store."

"Yes sir."

"Stay together and be careful."

"We will."

"All right. I'll see you in a little while."

Just like Linda, Grace's phone battery died halfway through the shopping trip, so Danny was forced to go on the hunt once he got to the mall. He found them after about three shops of flashing his badge and announcing loudly that he was looking for four teenage girls.

Grace was just walking out of the dressing room to show off her strapless mini dress when he walked in. "What do you think?" she asked the girls, oblivious to Danny walking up behind them.

"Gracer it's gorgeous! Parker will love it!"

"Absolutely not," Danny announced, making his presence known, "unless you plan on wearing a turtle neck and some pants over it."

Grace frowned at him. "Dad, what's wrong with this dress? Everything is covered."

"We have a very different definition of 'everything', Grace. Go change. We've got to pick up dinner for Mom."

Grace made her way into the dressing room to change back into her swim warm ups and came out looking sadder than when she went in.

"That is much better," he smiled.

"Dad, I can't wear this to a sweet sixteen!"

"And you can't wear that either," he said, pointing to the dress in her hand.

"But why? It's not like I'm going to be standing on a street corner."

"Wear that and people will think you will be."

"Dad!"

"We'll talk about it in the car. Girls, are you good to get home?"

"Yes sir," they all smiled. "Bye Gracer."

"Straight home," Danny reminded them as he put one hand on Grace's shoulder. "And since your dads aren't here, I'll save them the trouble. Anything you have in those dressing rooms or in your hands that had equal to or less material than that thing Grace just took off, you can go ahead and put it back on the rack. Bye ladies."

"Bye, Detective Reagan," they all chuckled as Grace and Danny walked to the car.

"Dad, don't you remember Nicki's dress for her sweet sixteen? It was basically the same thing."

"Yeah and I didn't like it either, but I didn't get to go approve her dress. Your Aunt Erin was in charge of that."

"Can she be in charge of mine?"  
"No."

"You know I'm not a slut. Why in the world can't I wear a cute dress?"

"Think of it this way. If you saw a distinguished gentleman in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck, what would you think he was?"  
"A doctor?"

"Exactly."  
"What about a guy in a fireman's uniform with the boots and the hat?"

"A fireman."

"Yep."  
"And how about a guy with a mechanic shirt with greasy jeans?"  
"A mechanic."

"You got it. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress. This, my dear Grace, is why we don't walk around with all of our goods hanging out of our clothing. We don't want people to see them and think that you are… open for business."

"You really think a strapless dress is going to make me a whore?"

Danny cut his eyes at her. "That's not even close to what I was thinking. I just don't want boys thinking about what's under the clothes... or in the case of that dress… about to be hanging out of the clothes."

"You're so old," Grace muttered as she slumped down in the front seat.

"No. I just know how teenage boys think and you don't. Buckle up."

It wasn't long before summer slowly began to come to a close, bringing about Danny's birthday. Linda woke the kids up early so that they could have cupcakes and presents in bed with him, a tradition that started when Grace was three.

"Open ours first!" Jack and Sean both exclaimed with excitement. "They go together."

Danny smiled as he ripped the paper off the package, revealing an assortment of camping supplies and a card that read, "Reagan Men Supplies for September 3rd."

"We've already checked your schedule and you're off that weekend. Grandpa, Pop, and Uncle Jamie are all in for a Reagan Manly Men camping trip."  
"They are?" Danny gave both boys a high five. "That's awesome. Thanks guys."

"Me next," Grace smiled as she handed Danny a card.

He opened it up and immediately smiled. "Dodgers vs. Mets tickets?!"  
"Yep."

"So… one for me and one for…" He grinned as Grace frowned.

"Me of course! You say we don't spend enough time together, so I figured nine innings of sunshine, soda, and cotton candy would be just perfect."

"I agree. Thanks Gracie."

When the evening of the game arrived, Danny was like a little kid at Christmas. "Linda!" he yelled from their bedroom. "Linda!"

"What?" she asked as she made upstairs. "What is it?"

"Where's my lucky Dodger shirt? The grey one."

"Is it not in your drawer?"

"No. It's not here. It was here the other day."

Linda turned around and saw Grace at the top of the stairs. "Let's go, Daddy-o! We're going to miss warm-ups."

"Come here for a sec," Linda laughed as Grace walked her way. "You mean this shirt?" she asked, pushing Grace in front of her.

"That's the one."

"One what?" Grace asked.

"You're wearing my lucky shirt!"

"I like it. It's old and broken in."

"Not old. Vintage."

Linda made her way over to the closet and pulled out one of Danny's other six Brooklyn Dodgers shirts. "Here. Wear the navy one." He pulled it over his head, replaced his baseball cap, kissed Linda, and followed Grace out the door.

"Bye, Honey! See you tonight."

"Have fun, you two."

Danny's big birthday celebration proved to be everything he wanted it to be. He and Grace arrived at Shea about an hour before the game. They explored the stadium, grabbed some icees, and settled in for batting practice. The game was exciting, the cotton candy delicious, and the Dodgers won 7-6 in ten innings, thanks to a walk off homerun. It was the perfect ending to a perfect night. Danny smiled as he glanced over at Grace on the drive home, lost in thought of how grateful he was that he had gotten his girl back.

"Dad. Dad are you listening?"

"Huh?"  
"You aren't listening."

"Sorry, Sweetie. What'd you say?"  
"I said Sophie asked if we were coming to her pageant next weekend."

"Have I ever told you how glad I am that you swim instead of strut on a runway?"

Grace laughed. "Don't worry. I told her Mom and I would be there but you guys had your camping trip planned. You're once again free from having to sit through a three-hour torture session."

"You're the best. Should we pick up pizza for Mom and the boys?"  
"I don't think so. They're probably asleep."

When Grace and Danny arrived at the house, all of the lights were off. "I guess you were right," Danny said as he fumbled for his keys.

"Dad, do you have your gun?" Grace asked as she held on to the pocket of his jacket.

"I thought you were a grown up?" he snickered as he opened the door. "Are you telling me you're still scared of the dark?"

"SURPRISE!" the entire Reagan family yelled as they turned on the lights and jumped out from behind all of the furniture scaring both Danny and Grace half to death.

"No, I was just afraid you'd shoot them," Grace laughed.

The Reagans continued partying the night away. Nicki was on song selection, Frank and Henry had bought cheesecake from Juniors and enough pizza to fill the house, and Erin and Jamie were on entertainment detail. Finally, around 10:30pm, they decided to call it a night. Linda sent the boys upstairs to bed while Grace and Danny cleaned up the kitchen and then took a seat on the couch.

"You need to get to bed too, Missy," Linda said as she joined the two of them.

"I know. We're just finishing up the perfect day," Grace yawned as she nuzzled up in the crook of Danny's arm. "Come sit for a minute." Linda took a seat beside them and propped her feet up on the coffee table.

"Did you two have fun?"

"Best birthday ever," Danny grinned as he kissed Grace on the top of the head. "Thanks for my party, Mama."

"Were you really surprised?"

"Absolutely. I almost had to go change my shorts."

"Mama, tell me how you knew Dad was the one," Grace requested as she grabbed Linda's hand and ran her fingers over Linda's wedding ring.

Linda caught Danny's eye and shared a smile. "Well…"

For the next twenty minutes, Linda was lost in the fairytale story of how she came to love Danny Reagan. She talked about how they first met, where they went on their first date, how he asked her to marry him, the whole nine yards. When she finished, she looked to Grace, who, instead of being completely mesmerized by the story, was fast asleep. Linda shook her head as Danny chuckled.

"So much for my trip down memory lane…"  
"Well, I enjoyed it, Mama. What are we going to do with this one?"

"I'm not a fan of leaving her down here by herself, so either wake her or carry her. It's entirely up to you."  
"I think my days of carrying her up those stairs are over," Danny laughed as he gently shook Grace's shoulder. "Wake up, Gracie. It's time for bed."

Grace yawned and stretched before throwing an arm over Danny's stomach and closing her eyes again. "Night Dad," she mumbled as she drifted back off to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

"Police, freeze!" Jamie yelled as Grace, Jack, and Sean walked out of St. Mary's Prep.

"What are you doing here?" Jack laughed as they all looked to him and Eddie leaned up against his car.

"Reagan Manly Men weekend starts now. I told your dad I'd pick you up."

"What about me?" Grace asked.

"Good thing you're a charter member of the boys' club."

Jamie opened the back of the car as they all threw their stuff inside. "Hop in."

"Hi Eddie," the Reagans all greeted her as they filed in one-by-one.

"Hey guys."  
"You taking us home?"

"First we're going to the grand opening of Fudge Farm, which is why Eddie's here. She knows the owner and can get us in. I though you guys might like a little sweet snack before we have to go live off the land for a couple of days."

"You know Samantha Holitave?" Grace asked excitedly.

"Who's that?" Sean asked, clearly only impressed by the word fudge and nothing else.

"She's only the most famous chocolatier in New York City. She studied in Switzerland for years before perfecting her truffles and fudge here in the states. This is the most highly anticipated opening since Grille 45 on the Upper East Side."

"Wow, somebody did their homework," Jamie laughed.

"How'd you score tickets, Eddie?" It's been sold out for months."

"We go way back. We've been best friends since we were six years old. I told her I was coming and bringing my entourage… I just had to find an entourage first." All of the Reagans laughed as did Eddie. "So what are you doing while these boys are sleeping in the woods, Grace?"

"My cousin Sophie has a pageant that Mom and I have to go to tomorrow. Want to come with us? Aunt Erin and Nicki may come. It's not like a St. Mary's Prep pageant. This is the big times. Like the one that leads to a Miss New York bid. It should be fun, but even if it sucks, we'll be downtown, so good food is certain."

Eddie smiled, ready to accept the invitation, then looked to her partner. She wasn't quite sure how he would respond to her hanging out with his family without him. Grace, ever the observant one, was quick to notice. "Don't worry about him. You don't need his permission."

"Well… I…"  
"You're coming. It will be fun. You can meet us there. I'll get Mom to text you the address."

Eddie once again looked to Jamie. "I guess you finally have reason to wear that pink cocktail dress," he shrugged.

She rolled her eyes. "I'd love to go. Thanks, Grace."

Eddie and the Reagans enjoyed the afternoon at the Fudge Farm, sampling just about everything on the menu. Samantha even took time to join them for ten minutes of young Eddie stories, to which Jamie laughed hysterically. Danny called just as they were leaving the restaurant.

"Hey Harvard, you still got my kids?"

"Yeah. We're headed to your house just as soon as we drop off Eddie."

"Eddie? What are you doing with Eddie?"

"Nothing."

"Uh huh. Well, change of plans. Come to Dad's. We're leaving from there."

"Ok. We'll be there in twenty. Have your stuff ready."

"All right."

"You're late!" Pop announced as soon as they walked in the kitchen door.

"Sorry Pop. We brought you some fudge," Sean smiled, holding up the little bag to Henry.

"You did?"

"Boys, load your stuff up in the car," Danny directed as clearly he, Frank, and Henry were ready to go. "Hey baby," he smiled as Grace walked over to him and he threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Hi," Grace sighed. "Sure you don't want to stay and go to Sophie's pageant?"  
"No," Danny grinned. "Will you and Mama be ok without us?"

"I don't know how we'll survive, but we'll try," Linda said as she linked arms with Grace.

"I'm sure a massage and a pedicure would help," Grace suggested.

Danny rolled his eyes as he kissed the side of Grace's head. "Do not go off the grid this weekend. Stick with Mom at all times. Got it?"

"Got it."

He leaned over and gave Linda long kiss. "Love you."

"Love you more."  
"Love you most."

With the Reagan men packed up and on their way to a wilderness weekend, Grace and Linda headed home. "Want to go out for dinner or order in?"

"How about we pick up Chinese on the way home?"  
"Even better. Mister Chow's Rice Hut?" Grace nodded. "Call it in. I want Mu Shu Pork."

The following morning, Grace and Linda met Nicki and Erin for a morning of yoga and then enjoyed an afternoon at the spa. They all got a massage and a pedicure, compliments of Frank. Since the girls never got to attend the manly men weekends, he wanted to make sure they got spoiled when necessary. Once the Reagan women were relaxed and rejuvenated, they made their way into the city to meet Eddie for dinner. She hadn't been to the spa, but she was glowing in her grey mini dress with her blonde curls spilling over her shoulders.

"Hey Eddie!" Grace yelled as she joined them outside of Princeton's on Fifth.

"We're glad you could make it," Linda smiled as she gave her a hug. "You look beautiful."  
"Thanks," Eddie smiled sheepishly, still not sure of how she had let Grace talk her into hanging out with the Reagans minus Jamie.

The girls had a wonderful meal at Princeton's on Fifth while the Reagan men dined on hotdogs and potato chips. Shortly after, they made their way to the arena for the pageant. "So what's Sophie's talent?" Eddie asked as they all settled into their seats and looked over the program.

"I think she dances," Grace answered. "I don't really know."

"Hey, let's pick our top ten and see who gets the closest," Nicki smiled. Linda dug through her purse to pass out pens to all of them. Erin got the closest by successfully picking eight of the ten, one of which was Sophie.

"This is almost like March Madness," Eddie chuckled as she picked her top two and circled the winner.

"Dad and I started doing it every time we have to come to one of these things. It makes it bearable for him."

"Does your Uncle Jamie ever come?"

"Nah… which is surprising because he's much more cultured than the rest of us."

Grace pulled a bag of chocolate covered almonds out of her purse and offered them to Nicki and Eddie before leaning up to offer some to Erin and Linda. Wendy looked on in disgust. "Want one?" Grace taunted as Wendy turned back around to face the stage. Linda tried not to laugh as Grace rolled her eyes. It wasn't too terribly much longer until Sophie was crowned the winner and the Reagan, Boyle, Janko party was released to go home.

"Hey," Grace smiled as she stopped dead in her tracks and pointed to McGuire's Pub as they all made their way to the parking deck. "It's still early. Who's up for karaoke?"

"No way," Erin said.

"Mom, come on!" Nicki begged. "It will be fun."  
Erin looked to Linda who shrugged. "Why not? I'm in if you're in… Eddie?"

"Sure."

"Sweet!" Grace and Nicki led the way and drug the other three up to the stage with them. "Let's do Spice Girls since there are five of us."

Nicki, Eddie, and Grace took front stage center having a blast and were absolutely blown away when Linda and Erin knew every single word, winning over the crowd. "I cannot wait to show Dad this," Grace chuckled as she and Nicki made their way out that night.

"You got it on video?"  
"I got the deejay to get it on video for me."

The Reagan men made it back to Bay Ridge in time for Sunday dinner. "We're hooome!" Danny announced as he led the way inside.

"Hey!" Linda and Erin both smiled from the kitchen where they were just finishing up with dinner. "How was the trip?"

"Great." Danny walked over and kissed Linda as Frank and Henry followed, greeting both Linda and Erin. The boys ran into the living room to find their sister and cousin and started talking non-stop.

"Where's Jamie?"

"Right here," Jamie sighed, bringing in the last of the luggage. "Hey Linda. Hey Erin."

"Hey Jamie. Wash up and go straight to the table. Dinner's ready."

"Danny, can you go get the kids?"

"I'm on it."

Danny walked into the living room to find Nicki and Grace on the couch while Jack and Sean stood in front of them, reenacting their fly fishing story.

"Hey Uncle Danny," Nicki smiled.

"Hey Dad."

"Hey. Dinner's ready." The girls got up and both slung an arm around Danny's waist as the boys led the way to the table. "How was the pageant?"

"The pageant was fine. Soph won."

"The after party was better," Grace grinned.

"What after party?"  
"I'll tell you about it later."

"Did you go…"  
"Mom and Aunt Erin were there," Grace shushed. "Chill."

Later that night after the boys had gone to bed, Grace went looking for Danny. Luckily, Linda was soaking in the tub, so she snuck into their bedroom where Danny was already kicked back on the bed, reading a book.

"Dad," Grace whispered. "Dad!"

"What?"

"Come here."

"What is it? And why are you whispering?"  
"I've got something to show you. Come on. Hurry up!" Grace took off down the hallway and jumped back in bed while Danny got up and curiously followed.

"What in the…"

"Close the door," Grace giggled, "and come sit." She patted the bed beside her. Danny did as instructed as he looked at her, extremely bewildered. "Remember when I told you we went to an after party?"  
"Yeah…"

"You know who the Spice Girls are?"  
"Yeah…"

"Check this out." They leaned back against the headboard as Grace pressed play. Danny was in hysterics halfway through the video as he watched his wife and sister totally owning the spotlight.

"Play it again!" he chuckled as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "That's the greatest thing I've ever seen."

They watched it once more with even more hysterical laughter until Linda walked in the door. Grace quickly tossed her phone to the side as Linda looked at them suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Grace answered. "We were just chatting."

"Don't you lie to me, Grace Reagan. I heard you two all the way down the hall."

"Ah, it was nothing," Danny smiled as he got up. "You need to be in bed," he said as he turned around and winked at Grace.

"Uh huh," Grace giggled as she ducked under the covers. "Night guys."

"What were you two really talking about?" Linda asked suspiciously as she and Danny made their way down the hall and into their room.

"Nothing," Danny grinned as he pulled her down onto the bed with him. They rolled around for a minute, kissing each other before eventually making their way to the top of the bed. Linda reached over and cut off the lamp before nestling down in the crook of Danny's arm, with her head resting on his chest.

"You know you're still my favorite boyfriend?" Linda whispered as they both began to drift off to sleep.

"Uh huh. And you're my favorite Spice Girl," he mumbled.

"WHAT?!" Linda shrieked, now clearly awake. "What did you say?"

"It's ok, Mama," he chuckled. "Go ahead. Tell me what you want… what you really really want." He cracked his eyes open to see Linda sitting straight up in bed, mortified. "Don't worry. You looked super hot on stage."

"Grace Reagan!"


	17. Chapter 17

The following week was Frank's birthday. Grace, Nicki, Sean, and Jack decided what better way to surprise him than with a trip to 1PP. It didn't take too long for Grace to sweet talk her way up to the 14th floor, and once Baker saw them with cupcakes, balloons, and a present, she motioned them back.

"Sir, your 4:30pm is here."

"I don't have a 4:30pm, Baker."

"You do today, Sir."

"SURPRISE!" the kids yelled as they all burst through the door.

"Hey!" Frank, Sid, and Garrett all smiled as they barreled inside.

"Happy Birthday, Grandpa!"

"You got time for a cupcake with your favorite grandkids?" Grace asked as they all attacked him with a hug.

"I think we can move some things around," Frank smiled as Grace and Nicki began handing out cupcakes to Sid, Garrett, Baker and the boys.

"Want us to sing, Boss?" Sid asked.

"No," Frank dead panned. "Do Danny and Erin know where you guys are?"

"Not exactly."

"Where exactly do they think you are?" Frank asked as he walked over and took a seat between Grace and Nicki.

"We told them we had to run an errand after school. This is our errand. Here. Let's take a selfie and we'll send it to them." They all gathered around Frank, each holding up their cupcakes, and snapped the perfect picture. "Look how cute!"

"I'm going to need one of those for my desk."

"Sure thing, Grandpa."

Danny called shortly after Grace hit send. "Hey Dad."

"Hey. You guys still with Grandpa?"  
"We are."

"Well, don't stay too long. He's busy today."

"We won't."

"How are you getting home?"

"I'm not sure. We'll figure it out."

"I don't think so. I'll wrap up things here and come pick you up. Stay put. Tell Grandpa to put you guys in a conference room if he's busy."

"You don't have to…"

"I'll see you in half an hour."

Frank grinned slightly as he looked over at Grace. "That your dad?"

"He'll be here in half an hour. He said to stick us in a conference room if you get bored of us."

"Not a chance."

Nicki called Erin shortly before Danny showed up and she walked over to have a cupcake before collecting her daughter for the ride home. "So, I already placed the call to Jimmy and requested a fish option this year for your birthday dinner."

"As long as there's key lime pie, I'm in."

"Don't worry, Dad. Same as always."

Danny strolled in shortly after in search of a cupcake of his own. "Happy Birthday, Commissioner," he smiled as he grabbed one with chocolate icing and made himself comfortable on the couch. "I can see that you kept the city safe today with streamers and sprinkles."

"Can it," Frank said looking up from his desk as Jack and Sean were over each of his shoulder, showing him a new app on his phone. "Did you come for one or all of my grandchildren?"

"Only my three. Let's go guys. Grandpa needs to work."

"Nicki, we need to be heading home too," Erin said as she gave Frank a kiss on the cheek. "Happy Birthday, Dad."  
"Come on, we'll drop you," Danny said as he handed Grace and Nicki their backpacks.

"So, Dad, we were thinking," Grace smiled as they all piled into Danny's Jeep. "Nic and I want to go to the mall to go shopping Saturday morning."

"And?"  
"And we were thinking since I have my driver's license, maybe I could quite possibly take the car."

"I don't think so."

"But I have my license and you said I was a good driver. And Nicki's been driving longer than I have. And we're going in the morning so there will be less traffic."

"Pleeeeease, Uncle Danny?" Nicki smiled.

Danny looked to Erin before looking to his niece's thousand-watt smile. "We'll talk about it."

"Yes!" the girls squealed as they hi-fived each other.

"That's not a yes," Erin said, frowning toward the back seat.

"But it's not a no," Nicki smiled. "Thank you Uncle Danny."

Against their better judgement, Danny, Linda, and Erin gave in to the girls' pleas for a solo shopping trip. Of course, with the trip came many warnings, advice, and reminders of things to do and not to do. Grace didn't think they'd ever get out of the house, but once they did, they cranked up the radio and celebrated their freedom. It didn't take very long to get to the mall. The girls enjoyed a morning of walking through each and every store, trying on outfits and digging through bins of jewelry. Around noon, they made their way to the foodcourt and had lunch before heading home.

They piled into Danny's Jeep for the ride home. Nicki pulled out treasure after treasure to rehash with Grace all of their wonderful finds. "Hey, your phone's buzzing."

"Who is it?" Grace asked as Nicki picked it up and looked.

"Well according to this it's your super hot boyfriend."

"Ha!" Grace died out laughing. "I was wondering what Parker was doing with my phone the other day. Let me see that." Nicki handed Grace her phone as she pulled up to a redlight. As Grace sent Parker a text, Nicki grabbed her phone as well and sent a picture of a few of her finds to her friend, Jemma. Unbeknownst to both girls, one of New York's finest was sitting right beside them, watching them text. As soon as the light turned green, he turned on his lights. "Crap!" Grace shouted as she pulled into the next available parking lot.

Officer Papdakis made his way to the car. Not one for small talk, he asked for Grace's license and insurance card. "You know why I pulled you over?"  
"Yes sir."

He ran the plates and came back to the car. "Grace Reagan, huh? Any relation to the Commissioner?"

Thinking this was the perfect opportunity to get out of a jam. Grace and Nicki both grabbed their Commission courtesy cards. "Yes! He's our grandfather."

"Oh really? Can I see that, please?"

"Sure," Nicki smiled as he took the card. Unfortunately, he didn't hand it right back and send them on their way. Instead, he stepped to the back of the car and made a phone call. "We're so getting out of this."

"No we're not. We're so dead. He's calling Grandpa. He will kill us before Dad. We should've pulled Uncle Jamie's card."

"You're right."

"Hello, Commission Reagan? This is Officer Papdakis out of the 5-1. I just pulled over two teenage drivers for texting while operating a motor vehicle. They flashed your Commission Courtesy card."

"Both of them?" Frank asked.

"Afraid so."  
"What are the names?"

"Grace Reagan is the driver. The car is registered to your son Danny. The other girl is about five one, short brown hair…"

"Nicki. Do me a favor, Officer. Tell the girls that they are to report to 1PP forthwith."

"Will do, Sir."

Officer Papdakis returned to the car to find both girls literally sweating it out. "I'm letting you off with a warning this time, but you are to never text while operating a motor vehicle again. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir. Absolutley!" At that point, they would have agreed to anything. Both girls sighed a big sigh of relief as Officer Papadakis handed Grace a warning ticket.

"Also, you are to report to 1PP immediately."

Grace and Nicki both threw their heads back against the head rest and sighed. "We're dead."

"Do you know how to get there?"

"Oh we know," Grace grumbled. "Thanks."

It didn't take too terribly long for Grace and Nicki to arrive. Sid was waiting at the front door when they trudged in looking extremely sad. "Hey Grace. Hi Nicki."  
"Hey," both girls attempted to smile as they gave him a hug. "Where is he?"  
"Upstairs. I'm here to escort you up."

"How mad is he?" Nicki asked as they got on the Commissioner's private elevator.

"He's not mad exactly…"

"Oh boy," Nicki groaned nervously.

"He's very quiet."

"Oh crap!" Grace exclaimed. "Quiet's never good, Lt. Gormley. Is the mustache twitching?"

The ride to the 14th floor felt like it only lasted about two seconds. Sid thought he was going to have to pry the girls off the elevator. Neither one wanted to step out. He finally got them moving and took them straight back to Frank's office.

"Hey Boss. Here are two of your favorite ladies. Safe and sound."

"Thanks, Sid. That will be all," Frank said coldly as Grace and Nicki quietly made their way inside.

"Hi Grandpa," they both squeaked out nervously.

"Sit," he directed. He still hadn't turned around from his usual perch overlooking the city.

"We're…" Grace was going to offer an excuse or at least an apology, but was quickly cut off.

"Sit." They both sunk down into the couch as he took a deep breath before turning around to face them.

"33,000. Do you have any idea what that number means?"

"Hopefully not how many days it's going to take you to forgive us?" Grace smiled as Frank frowned in her direction.

"33,000. That's how many accidents were caused last year by people driving while distracted."

"Oh."

"160 of them never made it home to their families." Grace and Nicki both looked at the floor, feeling incredibly sorry for their sins. "You two are Reagans," he continued. "And as a Reagan, I refuse to let you become another statistic in my city. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"As it stands, the two of you will be doing community service for the next six weekends. Our highways and byways are looking a little littered and the two of you will do just fine to put on an orange vest and clean those up for me. Understood?"

"Yes sir," they again mumbled, sadly.

"Can I ask one favor?" Grace asked.

"What?"

"Can we keep it between us and not tell Dad since you are already punishing us?"

"Absolutely not. We are going to tell both of your parents the moment we are finished here."

"Grandpa…"

"You will not become a statistic in my city," he said again as he walked over to them and stuck out his hand. "Phones." They knew better than to even try to fight him on it. They each handed over their phones as he placed them in his inside his desk drawer before taking a seat in front of them on the coffee table.

"We're sorry, Grandpa," Nicki offered, clearly on the brink of tears.

"You know I love you two very much, right?'

"We know."

"When I see you, I see the future of the Reagan family. Don't you mess up my future. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Let's go. I'm taking you home."

"What about the Jeep?"

"I have two members in my detail. One of them can drive it."

Nicki's drop was first. Erin was not very happy when Frank told her what happened. The saving grace was that Nicki was just a passenger. She wasn't actually driving. As always, Frank gave them both a hug and a kiss and assured them he'd see them at mass the following morning.

"Hey Jim," Grace asked as they walked back to the Commissioner's car, "what are the odds we can hotrod it out of here?" Ever the stoic Jim, just looked at her and shook his head. "Yeah.. you're right. There's a slight possibility that could make things worse."

Grace's stomach was in knots on the ride home. She had a very good feeling Danny was going to flip his lid. After all, she'd survived surgery and a kidnapping, neither of which were her fault. Getting caught texting while driving, now that was **entirely** her fault.

"Hey Dad! Grandpa's here!" Sean yelled as he and Jack opened the door to head out to go play lacrosse with some friends.

Danny made his way to the front door just in time to see Grace and Frank get out of the same vehicle and walk to the door. "This can't be good."

"What is it?" Linda asked.

"Grace, why are you with Grandpa? And where's Nicki?"

"Nicki's fine. We dropped her at home," Frank assured him. "Grace has something she'd like to tell you."

They took a seat in the livingroom as Danny's blood pressure began to rise. "Well…"

"Well," Grace began, "we went shopping and had a lovely time. Really it was a lot of fun, so thank you for letting us go."

"Get to it," Danny instructed, knowing Frank wasn't there for her to say that she had a good time.

"On our way back we stopped at a red light and I may have…" Frank cleared his throat, signifying she needed to rethink that statement. "I got Nicki to hand me my phone so I could reply to a text message and I got pulled over."

"You were texting while driving?!" Danny asked, his voice beginning to raise.

Grace threw up her hands in surrender. "No. No. No… I was texting while at a redlight. Not while driving." Danny and Linda both took a deep breath, as to not respond right away. Grace could tell that was clearly the wrong argument tactic. "Anyway, I knew you'd probably kill me for getting a ticket, so when the officer ran the registration and your name popped, we used our Commission Courtesy cards, but we didn't know that meant he was actually going to call the Commissioner. That's where Grandpa came into the picture. He took our phones and is making us do community service for six weeks."

"Grace," Danny began, trying as hard as humanly possible to remain calm, "do you have any idea what the fine is for an underage person who gets caught texting in New York City is?"

"$100?"

"No. Probationary and junior drivers face a 120-day suspension of their license for a first offense, and one-year revocation of their permit or license if a second offense is committed within six months."

"Oh."

"Get where I'm going with this? You will not be behind of the wheel for the next 120 days. If this ever happens again, you will not get your license back for a year. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Grace wanted to argue with every fiber of her being, but she knew that she was in the wrong, and no amount of argument was going to get her out of the trouble she'd brought upon herself.

"That's about it," Frank said. "I've got to get back to work. I'll see you all at mass in the morning." He walked over and kissed the top of Grace's head. "Love you, Grace. Make better choices." Grace sighed as she sat, looking at the floor while Frank made his way out the front door.

"Ella Grace Reagan," Danny began, attempting to remain calm, but ready to let Grace know just exactly what he thought of the error of her ways.

"I know, Dad, I know. I'm sorry."

"How do we keep ending up here, Grace?" Linda asked with her arms crossed.

"It was innocent. And I was just sitting at a red light. It's not like I was driving down the freeway at 112mph. Don't you think Grandpa overreacted just a little? I mean, who else gets called to 1PP for a warning ticket?"

"Are you…" Danny started as Linda snapped her fingers.

"Hold on. I get to go first. Anytime you do something stupid and get called out on it by any member of this family, we will support them 110%. I don't care if it's Erin, Jamie, Pop, Grandpa, or even Uncle Jack. You do something dumb, I expect them to call you out. Every single time. And when they punish you, as Grandpa just did, Daddy and I will support them. Every single time."

"Grace," Danny began again.

"Not yet," Linda continued. "There are a lot of things that have happened to you over this past year that you haven't had any control over and it hasn't always been fair. I understand that. But this! This you have control over. Every time you've gotten in that car, Daddy and I have reminded you to leave that phone alone. I may understand one day if you got a warning ticket for being on the phone, for instance if you were lost and it were late at night, or if you were going to be late coming home, but there is NEVER an ok time to be texting and driving. I can't think of one time you would ever need to text and drive. Can you?" Grace looked at Danny for help. Linda was clearly fired up, something Grace hadn't experienced in years. "Do not look at Daddy for help. Look at me, Grace Reagan. There isn't one time that texting and driving is ok. Since you can't seem to steer yourself in the right direction of making choices, Daddy and I will just have to do it for you. Until you leave this house for college, we will control your moves because just as Grandpa said, you will NOT become a statistic in this city. Do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Can I?" Danny asked as Linda stared at Grace.

"Sure." Just as Danny started to speak, Linda jumped in again. "And NO. Grandpa wasn't overreacting. Texting while driving is the most dangerous stunt you can pull on the roadways, Grace. Taking your eyes off the roadways for a split second can be the difference in you making it home or not making it home." Danny looked to Linda again. Had this not been such a heated discussion, it would've been hilarious. He'd never seen her so fired up and literally every time he'd gone to speak, she'd cut him off. He waited a beat before looking to her again. "Well!" Linda finally exclaimed, "aren't you going to say anything?"

"I don't think there's anything left to say," Danny said, sternly. "I'm glad that you are back home safe and that nothing happened. Where's your phone?"

"Grandpa put it in his desk."

"Well, I guess that's where it will stay. And you, will stay at home, until further notice. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Grace muttered sadly. Boy had this day taken a turn. Just a few hours earlier, Grace and Nicki were having the time of their lives, now they were both in the doghouse with Frank and were facing serious house arrest, Grace more so than Nicki.

"Hey Sassy!" Jack yelled as he barreled through the front door. "Want to go to the movies tonight? Oh…" He stopped dead in his tracks. "Sorry."

"Can I go upstairs," Grace asked sadly.

"No. You're going to change clothes and then meet me out in the shed. We're going to organize and label everything out there."

"Dad, that could take forever," Grace whined.

"Forever or the next 120 days… whichever comes first. Go."


	18. Chapter 18

Grace soon learned that her newest form of house arrest was indeed more family time than she could've ever imagined. Instead of a "normal" grounding experience where one stays in her room and does nothing all day, Danny and Linda made sure Grace was helping them with one task or another at all times. It was never anything too taxing, but instead gave them plenty of time to talk… about everything. At first, Grace was super annoyed, then she finally resigned to embrace it. She listened to Danny tell old stories about everything in the shed. First it was his baseball mitt, his and Linda's first Christmas lights, Sean's old baby stroller, and Grace's first dollhouse. The next weekend, it was Linda's turn to reminisce when she and Grace went through the treasures in the attic. They found a ton of old toys, letters, crafts, and children's dress up clothes. Grace had to admit, while she'd rather be hanging out with Parker, it wasn't all that bad. They continued each week for a solid month. Sometimes it was just a walk down the street or a day spent doing laundry. When Danny was convinced Grace had indeed learned a lesson, he decided to take her to breakfast.

"Ella Grace, rise and shine!" Danny crooned as he knocked on her door and walked into her room.

Grace barely cracked open an eye. "Daaaad. It's like… 6:30am."

"6:00am actually. Come on. Get dressed. Let's meet Grandpa for breakfast and then we're coming back to clean the basement." Danny stood by her bedside in his Dodgers shirt, jeans, and baseball hat, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Come on Gracie. Up! Up!"

"How about you go eat with Grandpa and I sleep for another couple of hours?"

"No. Grandpa will be so disappointed."

"Dad, you know what I love about Grandpa?"

"That he's almost as good as me about picking out your clothes?" Danny dead-panned as he dug through Grace's drawers to find her something to wear.

"No. He's so forgiving. Just like his oldest son… He forgives and forgets and doesn't hold a grudge. And I bet he even has even paroled a few sweet, angelic, 16 year olds before."

"No such luck. I was one of those and I never got parole." He tossed a sweat shirt and a pair of jeans on top of Grace. "Hurry up. Grandpa said he'd be there at 7:00am and with traffic, we need to be out the door no later than 6:30am."

"UGH!" Grace grumbled as she sat up and looked at the clothes Danny had picked out and slung on top of her. "Yeah, that'll do," she shrugged to herself, not really caring at this point what she looked like. It was too early. She brushed her teeth, grabbed her boots and met Danny downstairs.

Danny looked up from the newspaper he was reading and smiled. "Let's go!"

Grace got in, buckled up, and slouched down, resting her head on the console between she and Danny. "Gracie, don't you want to talk?"

"Dad, it's 6:30am. The sun isn't even up this early. Besides, I've been grounded for weeks. All we've done is talk. I'm talked out. Right now, I want sleep, and I'll take it any way I can get it."

Danny just chuckled as he gave her a few pats before resting his hand on top of her back. Grace slept all the way to Sully's Kitchen, the little hole-in-the-wall breakfast dive that Frank and Danny absolutely loved. "Here we are," Danny announced as he pulled into the parking lot. "And look, Jim and Grandpa are here too." Grace stretched and rubbed her eyes before unbuckling her seat belt and slowly getting out of the car. Danny threw one arm around her shoulders as they walked inside in search of the Commissioner.

"There he is," Grace yawned as she made her way over to where he was sitting. "Hi Grandpa."

"Hi, Grace!" She leaned down and gave him a hug as he kissed her cheek. "What are you doing up this early?"  
"Coercion by one of your cops. That's illegal, right?"

"Not when he brings one of my two favorite granddaughters to breakfast." Grace rolled her eyes. "Sit down and tell me everything that's going on in your world."

"My father still has me under house arrest. That's it. Fort Reagan is my world."

"Don't text and drive," Danny said as he picked up the menu and surveyed his options.

"I wasn't driving," Grace mumbled. "I was stopped at a red light."

"Moot point," Frank countered. "Here's a better question. what are you and your dad up to today?

"Real fun stuff, Grandpa. We get to eat with you and then go home and clean the basement." Grace frowned as Frank chuckled.

"Well, we better make sure this is the highlight," he smiled.

"Grandpa, tell me one thing. Didn't my dad ever do anything and get in trouble and YOU may or may not have grounded him for what seemed like an eternity, and then you decided he was a kind, sweet child and you agreed to let him off early?"

Frank scoffed. "Grace, do I look like the guy that would parole Danny Reagan early?"

Grace sighed. "What about Grandma?" Frank shook his head back and forth.

"Has your mom ever overridden your dad?"

"Not in this lifetime."

"Well, there you go."

"Gracie, you remember when you and Jack were little and we went on vacation to Montauk?" Danny finally spoke up.

"Of course. We went there every year."

"Do you remember the year that Aunt Erin and Uncle Jack took you guys to the Seaside Skate Park?"

Grace looked very confused, as did Frank. "No. When was that?"  
"Oh you were probably seven and Jack was about five. You don't remember?"

"I have no recollection."

"That's because they didn't, Grace. You and Jack spotted Seaside Skate Park across the street and you and your little brother thought it would be a ton of fun, but instead of waiting for Aunt Erin and Uncle Jack who had taken you out for ice cream, you two decided to play the ultimate game of Frogger and cross four lanes of traffic by yourselves."

Grace's eyes got huge. "Oh I definitely remember that part."

"Uh huh. When Mama and I heard what had happened, we were so thankful that nothing happened to the two of you. We literally held our breaths until we saw the two of you, and got to hold you in our arms, safe and sound."

"I think we're remembering two different things, Dad," Grace interrupted. "I don't remember you being so thrilled to see us. I distinctly remember the spanking of a lifetime followed by the two of us sitting in time-out while Nicki got to go to the pool."

"True," Danny said as he stirred his coffee. "But that came _after_ we assured the two of you were safe and sound. Look at it this way, did you ever cross the street again without a grown up?"

"Definitely not."

"Plan on texting while sitting at a red light again?"

"Definitely not."  
"Then I think we've achieved our goal."  
"Achieved as in I'm no longer grounded and can now rejoin the society I've been cut off from for so long?" Grace desperately asked with a glimmer of hope in her eye.

"Give it the weekend and then, yes. You may be granted parole, but you're still helping me with the basement today."  
"And my phone?" Grace looked to Danny but cut her eyes in Frank's direction.

"That's up to Grandpa."

Frank took a sip of his coffee. "We'll talk about it Sunday."

The hope of early parole was all it took for Grace to put a little pep in her step while cleaning out the basement. "Aww Dad, look. It's my old Beany Bunny!"

"Whaaat?" Danny walked over from where he was stacking boxes and propped up on a table beside Grace. She handed over the ratty old rabbit as he smiled fondly. "I remember when we got you this old thing. You had just started walking. You carried him everywhere."

"Hey!" Jamie shouted as he burst through the basement door. "Anybody home?"

"Hey, Uncle Jamie!" Grace smiled.

"Hey, Kid. What are you doing here?" Danny asked as he blew the dust off some of his old records.

"I heard Grace's last act of penance was cleaning out this basement. I thought I might lend my services to speed along the process so that we can go to a little concert in the Garden tonight…" he smiled as he held up two tickets.

"Ah!" Grace shrieked as she tackled him with a hug. "Best uncle ever!"  
"Ever!" Jamie mouthed to Danny with a smile as he hugged his niece and Danny rolled his eyes.

Jamie and Grace had a ton of fun. Not surprisingly, they "ran" into Eddie who joined them for some excitement. Their night lasted well into the next morning. Danny had fallen asleep in the livingroom waiting on Jamie to bring Grace home. Jamie walked her to the door and once she was safely inside, he headed home. Grace considered just going to bed herself, but instead thought it'd be more fun to torture Danny, much in the same way he'd done with her earlier that morning. She kicked off her shoes, dropped her stuff at the door, and ran over and pounced on top of Danny. "Wake up, old man!"

"What in the world?!" Danny gasped as his eyes shot open to see Grace staring him right in the face.

"Hey, Dad! Wakey wakey!"

"What time is it?" he yawned.

"Think of it this way. It's equally as late now as it was early when you woke me up this morning." She cracked up as he pushed her off and she landed in the floor beside him.

"Huh?" Clearly he was waaaay too groggy to process any fun Grace was having as she sat in the floor drumming on his stomach.

"It's late. Go to bed. I'm home." Danny stretched as they both got up to head upstairs.

"Did you have fun?"

"It was amazing! You know what it made me think of?"  
"What's that, Gracie?"

"I think I'm finally old enough that this is the year that you let me go into the city on New Year's Eve and celebrate like a real New Yorker."

"And here I thought I was the one that was sleep walking."  
"Huh?"  
"Clearly you're the one that dreaming if you think I'm letting you go into the city on New Year's Eve." Grace frowned as he gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight, Grace."

It wasn't long before Grace's favorite time of the year drew near. The minute Danny walked through the door, Grace was ready and waiting with the traditional Thanksgiving question. "Daaaaad!"

"Graaaaace," Danny mocked as he walked through the door and tossed his keys on the table before walking over and giving Linda a kiss.

"Dad, focus. Are you going to be off for the parade?"

"Huh?" Danny asked with one arm around Linda's shoulders.

"Are you going to be off for the parade?"

"Is the parade this week?"

"Dad!"

"Whaat? You want to go to that silly old parade?" Danny poked. "It's almost like she enjoys it…" LInda chuckled as Grace stood, unamused. Danny knew good and well Thanksgiving was Grace's favorite holiday and that parade meant more to her than any other Reagan family tradition. Every single year of her life, at the top of her Christmas list would be to go to the Thanksgiving parade the following year. She planned the entire day a year in advance. None of the Reagans quite caught the excitement of the day like Grace, but she was in it from Tom Turkey until Santa.

"DAD!"

"Oh I'm kidding. Yes, Gracie. I'm off for Thanksgiving. We will go to the parade. Grandpa has us some killer seats, but you better dress warm. This may be the coldest one yet."

"You know, if you let Parker come with us, I'd be sure to stay warm…" Danny's fun was over. His eyes got real narrow real fast and his blood pressure shot up. Linda noticed as did Grace, so she relented. "Just kidding, Detective. Calm down. No need to get all fiery."

"Ella Grace Reagan, I can't wait until one day in the distant, distant future… when you're like 52, and you have a teenager… I hope she is **exactly** like you."

"Oh, you mean perfect?" Grace smirked.

"Perfectly impossible."

Thanksgiving Day the Reagans all made their way down to the parade route. Henry had plenty of hot cocoa and coffee and Linda brought more blankets than there were people. Danny, ever on high alert, surveyed the crowd as they all piled into their seats.

"Relax," Erin smiled, noticing her brother's look of stress. "Everything's fine."  
"I know. Just making sure it stays that way. Hey, Dad."

"Hey!" Frank smiled as he joined them. "Are we having fun yet?"

"Tell Dad to chill," Grace smiled as she got up and gave Frank a hug and a kiss to the cheek. "He's on high alert."  
"It's a cop thing," Frank assured her.

"It's a Reagan thing," Jamie chimed in as he took a seat beside Grace.

The Reagan clan ended up having a blast. As instructed by Grace, they watched from Tom Turkey until Santa Claus. When they were finally able to pull her Grace away from the parade route, they went back to Bay Ridge for the traditional football game. While Henry and Linda prepared the turkey, Grace, Nicki, Jack, and Sean took on Danny, Erin, and Jamie, with Frank as referee.

"Kids win again!" Sean announced as they all walked in for dinner.

"No way. We were at a disadvantage," Jamie protested.

"And what was that?" Henry asked.

"We had Erin!" Danny exclaimed as he threw up his hands. Erin was quick to slug him as they all died out laughing. "I demand a rematch."

"Quit picking on your sister," Frank scolded.

"Dad, you saw her."

"Yeah. She completely dropped an endzone pass."  
"I hate to tell you this," Erin said as she rolled her eyes, "but you're no Tom Brady."

"And you're no help in a two-minute drill."  
"That's it," Frank finally said, ending the argument. "You three are doing the dishes."


	19. Chapter 19

**This silly chapter was inspired by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos's latest story about Lola walking in on them. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it on YouTube. It's literally the funniest thing ever. It also comes from David walking in on Moira and Johnny on Schitts Creek. Equally as funny. Hope you get a laugh out of it. :)**

"Daaaaaaad!"

"Your daughter wants you," Linda chuckled as she and Danny sat cuddled on the couch having a glass of wine.

"If we don't make a sound, maybe she'll think we ran away," Danny whispered as Linda sat up and put her glass on the coffee table.

"Dad!" Grace appeared at the top of the stairs, annoyed that he hadn't answered her yet. "I've got an idea!"

"What's that, First Born?"

"Windham Mountain got a lot of snow this week."

"Gracie, it's December. A lot of New York got snow this week. What's the big deal?"

Grace rolled her eyes. "Dad!"

"What? It's the truth. Come down here and quit shouting."

Grace made her way downstairs and squeezed herself in between her parents. "I want to go snowboarding."

"Have you ever snowboarded?"  
"No, but I want to go anyway. Pleaseeeeee? You won't have me for much longer. Don't you want as many family memories as possible?"

Danny and Linda both sighed as they looked at Grace. "We'll talk about it."

Grace took that as a sign that she needed to call in reinforcements. "Oh Grandpaaaa….." she crooned the following day as soon as they sat down to Sunday dinner.

"Yes, Granddaughter?"

"We were talking last night. Windham Mountain got lots of snow and yours truly sure would love to go skiing."

"Grace!" Linda scolded.

"What? You said you'd think about it… so I thought I'd see if Grandpa needed to think about it."  
"I haven't skied in forever," Jamie said. "And Windham does have some really good slopes."

"When did you ever ski?" Danny asked.

"When I was dating Mollie Hamperfield in college and we took a couple of weekend trips…" he stopped that memory and smiled as clearly none of them knew of that little secret.

"You know what, Grace? Although I do not approve of you going above your dad's head, I wouldn't mind a long weekend in the mountains. We haven't been out of the city in a while. Fresh air would do us all some good."

"Yes!" Jack and Sean both exclaimed as they gave each other a high-five. "Way to go, Sassy!"

"Have I ever told you that you are my favorite, Grandpa?"

"Don't push it," he dead-panned.

The Reagans arrived at their chalet in the mountains, half of them ready for fun and excitement, the other half looking for total and complete rest and relaxation.

Linda, Frank and Henry quickly went to work getting settled in. Danny, Erin, and Jamie gave in to the anxiousness of the younger Reagans and quickly took them down to the clubhouse to rent all the gear they would need for the following day. While Danny, Jamie, Erin, Nicki, and Jack all opted for skis, Sean and Grace both grabbed a snowboard.

"Would you like to add a private lesson?" the gentleman at the counter asked Danny as he rang up all of the rental equipment.

"Do you think we need one?"  
"Have you ever done this before?"

"A few of us have. My crew, not so much."

"Dad, we don't need lessons. We'll be fine. We have YouTube," Sean shrugged.

Danny leaned in close. "If I get up before all of them, can I come take a lesson tomorrow morning, so I don't look like an idiot out there?"

"Sure thing," the man whispered back.

Unfortunately for Grace, Danny didn't get up and head to the slopes for a lesson first thing the next morning. When she happily bounced down the hallway to wake him up so that they could indeed get somewhat of an early start, she fully expected to find him sound asleep. She actually couldn't believe she was up before her parents. Normally they were dragging her out of bed… especially on vacation... so when she slung the door open to their room, she was not prepared for what she saw. There, in front of her eyes, were her parents… having a very intimate moment.

"No! No. No. No. No. No." Grace slammed the door and rushed back down the hallway.

"Grace!" Linda shrieked.

"Didn't you lock the door?" Danny asked as they both got up and attempted to find their clothes.

"I thought you did. Doesn't anybody knock in this family?"  
"Clearly not!"

Linda tied the belt on her robe and rushed down to Grace's room.

"Grace. Honey, let's talk about this."  
"NO. No. No. NO." Grace continued as she sat in the bottom of the closet with her hands over her eyes. "My retinas are burning! I think I just went blind!"

Danny followed Linda in and took a seat on Grace's bed. "Gracie, what you just saw was simply two adults engaging in…"  
"OH MY GOSH – I know what I saw. I just saw the first layer of Hell, Daddy. And probably the second, third, fourth, and fifth. And however many levels there are. I just saw them. ALL of them."

"Ella Grace!" Linda scolded. "It's perfectly natural to…"

"Nooooo. NONE of that was natural. Ew. Ew."

"Stop being so dramatic," Danny said. "Your mother and I…"  
"No. No. No. No. No. I don't want to hear anything from you. Ew. Ever. It's 7:30am! And you're… Ew!"

"We're your parents! We're not dead."

Grace reached up and closed the closet door. "You're not dead but my childhood is. I. Can't. EVEN!"

"What's wrong with Sassy?" Jack asked as he wandered in from the next room over after hearing all of the commotion.

"Nothing," Danny said, pushing him right back outside. "Go get dressed." Danny turned back to the closet door. "Grace, when you want to be adult about this, join us for breakfast."

"I'M GOING TO POKE MY EYES OUT WITH A CLOTHES HANGER!"

"Just don't bleed on the carpet. Come on, Mama," Danny said as he put one arm around Linda and headed back down to their room to get dressed.

Grace did eventually vacate the closet and went downstairs, avoiding any sort of eye-contact with her parents. The rest of the Reagans could tell something was up, but decided to let it play out and just continued with their pancake breakfast.

"Want some whipped cream and blueberries?" Danny asked as he offered Grace the can of Ready Whip.

"You two are disgusting," Grace grumbled, gesturing to Danny and Linda.

"Grace!" Erin exclaimed.

"Not at the table," Linda instructed.

"Mother. Put yourself in my shoes."

"With all do respect, there Sweetheart, you could've knocked," Danny said as he continued eating his pancakes.

"What happened?" Sean asked.

"Grace walked in on your father and I…"  
"Kissing," Danny interrupted. "Eat your breakfast."

Jamie, Frank, Erin, and Henry all exchanged a slight smile and a glance.

"Isn't today your anniversary?" Frank asked.

"Uh huh," Linda blushed as she took a sip of orange juice.

"Ooooooh, poor Grace," Jamie said sympathetically as he patted his niece on the back, knowing exactly what she'd just walked in on. "Ready to hit the slopes?"

"Yes, please." Grace was up and out the door in about two seconds.

Jamie took the kids on ahead while Danny, Linda, and Erin all got dressed. Frank and Henry opted to keep the fire hot and have lunch waiting when they all returned.

By the end of the afternoon, whatever stress Grace, Danny, and Linda had from the morning events was all gone. They all had a blast out on the mountain. Surprisingly, as unathletic as Nicki seemed, she actually turned out to be one of the best on the skis. Erin, of course, was #1, but Nicki came in a very close second. Danny, of course, was the absolute worst. They all had a good time making fun of him as he tumbled down the slopes.

By the end of the first day, they were all exhausted as they sat around the fire pit cooking s'mores.

"Hey Pop, will you tell us a ghost story?" Sean asked.

"Oh, let me think," Henry said as he kicked back in his chair and racked his brain for a good story. "Have I ever told you the story about the haunted hospital on Harrington Lane?" For the next half hour, Henry terrified them with stories.

Around 11pm, they all decided to call it a night. "We're going to bed," Danny said as he got up and offered a hand to Linda.

"Ew!" Grace grumbled as Jamie put a hand over her mouth and cracked up.

"Night, guys."

The following morning Grace got up and went straight to the kitchen. Frank and Henry had prepared a beautiful breakfast with eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy. It was a feast fit for kings.

"Hey, run back upstairs and get your parents," Frank said as Grace stepped into the kitchen.

"No thank you."  
Frank turned around with eyebrows raised, clearly not one to be told no.

"Grandpa…"  
"Go. We're ready to eat and you three are holding us up. Go."

Grace sighed as she marched back upstairs and slowly made her way down the hallway. When she approached the door, she knocked long and loudly… the kind of knock that would rival any veteran firefighter or SWAT team member.

"Yes?" she heard Danny answer.

"Get dressed and come to breakfast! Grandpa said he's waiting on you two."

"Want to come in?" Linda asked.

"Not unless you are both dressed in a suit of armor. I'll see you downstairs!"

Linda looked to Danny. "Have we permanently scarred our firstborn?"  
"Nah. I'm sure she's fine. She didn't see anything. She's just being dramatic."  
"I'm not so sure about that. The two of us made eye contact. I'm not sure what she saw of you. Besides, like she said, can you imagine if you would've walked in on Frank and Mary."  
"Ew. No. No. No." At that moment, Danny sounded exactly like Grace. "My parents did NOT ever have sex."

"What?" Linda laughed. "I hate to break it to you, Babe, but…"  
"No."

"Danny, you were not born of immaculate conception."

"You don't know that. Come on. Let's go to breakfast."


End file.
